I am a liberal. I don’t deny it. Being liberal doesn’t mean I want things for free. In fact, I take offense to that. It’s one of those ridiculous quotes you get from ignorant people looking for someone else to blame for their money problems. The more accurate reasons you’re struggling are likely a lack of education, bad career choices, or just making poor financial decisions. “Poor people are taking food out of my kids’ mouths.” Yep…that’s it. I guess it’s not the 40 ft. bass boat dry docked in your driveway.
That’s not to say I haven’t made my own share of poor financial decisions. I ride a mountain bike that cost more than a new car. That’s crazy even to me, and it’s been my hobby for four decades. However, I can afford it, and I’m not going to whine about being broke and starving while I blow money on my hobby. Hint…if you are struggling yet you’re able to spend $5000.00 a year on hunting equipment it’s time to reevaluate your life choices.
I have been dead broke. From 2007-2009 I went from a comfortable income to 2 years without a job. All the businesses in my community either went belly up, left, or just shipped the work I did overseas. I had to sell all my belongings just to live and eventually my house. There was no work so I went on welfare. It wasn’t easy. I was angry at both industry and government: Industry for shipping my job to Ireland, and my local government for doing nothing to bring business to the city. However, I never blamed the family on food stamps. That would have been stupid.
Living on less than $46.00 a week in food stamps wasn’t the life plan. However, it happened, and I got through it by reinventing myself. I left my home, and my comfortable lifestyle to move to a new city just so I could get work. I learned all I could about what I do today so I could start a new career in my 40s. So, when you stand there complaining your steel mill job, or your soon to be obsolete coal mining job is about to end and it’s a liberal’s fault, I don’t have any sympathy for you. Get off your ass and learn a new trade. Don’t tell me I’m the one who wants a free ride.
Now that I’m back to full employment I’m paying enough in taxes to support several families. I don’t mind it either. What I mind is it going to industries and organizations that are set up to keep failing and obsolete businesses afloat through military spending and corporate kickbacks. If someone is really hungry and needs my tax money they can have it. Just don’t give it to an ignorant, whiney backwater who refuses change and wants the planet to suffer while they sit in a hole and dig in the dirt all day.
Most liberals are not poor. They’ve rarely experienced anything close to welfare. However, my experience is still not unique. What happened to me happened to millions of people during the great recession. Could I have prevented my situation? Sure. Had I a crystal ball I would have shorted CMO’s and retired a billionaire instead of having a 401k invested heavily in the failing investments. Invested I might say on the recommendation of Goldman Sachs, a company that was secretly divesting itself from those same investments because they knew they were failing.
Does this mean I go out and set fire to the planet, killing all life as we know it? Nope. It means I get out there and find new ways to survive and make ends meet and eventually get back to the lifestyle I had before the collapse. It also doesn’t mean that I blame black people, Mexicans, or Muslims for my problems. And I certainly don’t blame the homeless mother on food stamps.
That’s ridiculous!
Rex