The Fury of Me

E-Trade Baby Faces Reality

Thanks to College Humor for the clip.

 

Soul Crushing Anecdotes

I encourage everyone to go over to Yahoo! News today and read this article.  It is a collection of submissions from unemployed people across the country and if it doesn't make you feel like you just got punched in the gut, well you probably have no soul or are like the douche bag friend of a friend of mine who is currently in Washington collecting California unemployment checks, smoking pot, and declaring that he is the reason there shouldn't be unemployment. Hopefully he gets hit by a bus.

Some of the stories are absolutely gut-wrenching and the ones that are supposed to be uplifting didn't really lift me up. I think Eric Cantor, Louie Golmert, Michelle Bachmann and some other Tea Party numbnuts in DC could use a very long stint of unemployment so that maybe they can empathize with people a little more. I would give anything to be able to punch Eric Cantor right in his smug face.

I wrote my own submission for this article, which wasn't used, and am contemplating posting it here. Myself and many of my friends have gone through some unemployment or have been hopping in and out unemployment through temporary work that is generally crappy. Check out this chart to see just how bad.

I used to not understand how the Vietnam War made so many people jaded and cynical toward government, including some people very close to me.  It literally baffled me and I found that I just couldn't relate.  Well, that is changing.  Two wars that are basically determined as completely worthless (was getting Osama really worth all that it cost?) and an economy that was run off a cliff by Senate, Congressional and presidential Republicans with the help of one downgraded Democratic president (in my opinion), Bill Clinton. 

I studied, went to college, got a couple degrees, graduated and got a job, and then realized that even now the "little guy" is still getting stepped on by the assholes that run our economy and country. And I also realized that a significant part of our country doesn't believe in facts, reality, or have an interest in how things work as long as gays don't destroy their marriage, the "Mexicans" stay out, and women keep bringing babies into a world where they will get no financial support, grow up poor and under-educated, and basically live to serve the well off in one way or another.

In the end, the worst part for me is, we all deserve what we are getting. This is what Americans as a collective have voted for over the last 30 years. Just like Wisconsin is now getting what they deserve because they elected morons to run their state.  We elected morons, spineless Democrats, Republicans who think with their guts, and all kinds of fucklenuts in between.  It's just unfortunate that the generation that is just entering the adult world and the one right ahead of it are going to be bearing the brunt of the decision made by old, stubborn, idiots for the rest of our lives. They grew up and played by the old rules only to get to the end and find out that the rules had been changed. That can make it really hard to get out of bed in the morning.

Head Explosion

Just went to Talking Points Memo and they had this headline "GOPers Say They've Already Agreed to a Concession: Raising the Debt Limit." My head nearly exploded.  Just from the sheer balls of the claim. Boehner claim's that a balanced approach means Obama concedes to GOP framework and the Republicans vote to raise the debt ceiling. This is money that the Republicans fucking voted to spend during the Bush presidency. I mean, give me a fucking break. Democrats spent money too, obviously, but they aren't the ones who are all of a sudden at balking at the the responsibility of paying their own bills. I can't believe this shit. The House is run by a bunch of morons. I now just want to light myself on fire and run into the House chambers.

Southpark Had it Right!

For those of us that regularly watch Southpark, or used to, this isn't really news. By pointing out the idiocies of Americans in oh so delicate ways, Southpark is able to cut to the core of the issue that it is addressing.  The episode being discussed in this article on NationalJournal.com is the Margaritaville episode where Randy Marsh buys a Margaritaville Machine on credit but then can't return it because his debt has been sold, bundled, repackaged and insured by banks, governments, and anyone else.

All of this leads to Kyle sacrificing himself by taking everyone's debts onto his own credit card so that people can spend freely again and jump start the economy.  Trey Parker and Matt Stone were actually right on with this.  The thing that would have helped the most would have been giving trillions of dollars to the citizens who could then pay their mortgages which would bail out the banks from the bottom up.  Instead Bush/Obama bailed out the banks who gave the middle finger to everyone else and a nice steaming pile of cash to themselves as bonuses.

As the article says, "Obama was shocked by the bonuses given."  Well, shit Barack. I saw that coming a mile away.  So you are either naive, complicit, or easily manipulated. None of those options are better than the others. Once again the middle and lower classes get screwed.  Oh, and I'm also still waiting for my job. Thanks, Obama.

We're All Trapped

Do you ever start to feel trapped by your life? It could geographically, financially, socially, or occupationally.  It’s probably the feeling I hate most. It eats at me and winds me up so that it’s all I can think about.  And the more you try to figure it out the more you realize there is nothing you can do.

Since I can count the number of people that read my blog on one hand, you all at least know the generalities of my situation.  I haven’t had a permanent job since December 2008 when I go laid off after playing Santa for co-workers’ kids in the office Christmas party.  (Keep it classy former employer.)  That means no paid time off, no health care, no retirement contributions nothing in the last two and a half years of my life.  It’s infuriating.  For me, anyway, it makes me wonder if there will ever be a way to climb out.  It’s easy for some of my less empathetically inclined friends to say, “why don’t you just move?”  All that does is tell me they have no idea what they are talking about.

All I can think of is moving out of my current geographical area.  It’s overpriced, the financial services industry is dead and most likely will never be meaningfully resurrected here again, and it’s basically a black hole for a young person’s life.  Moving requires the ability to save.  You have to pay for movers or the U-Haul to do it yourself.  You have to have first and lasts month’s rent, etc.  If people could “just move” then believe me, more people would.  But for someone who is in my situation, and I know there are others, you just start to feel crushed.

I frequently meet people who don’t realize how lucky they have it.  Or have a skewed perspective on what they have achieved themselves and what roads were paved for them by others.  You’re probably thinking, the same could be said for me, which is true to a degree. I grew up in a household with two parents who gave me everything they could and helped me in anyway possible.  And that is something I’m eternally appreciative of.  But I frequently meet people who take for granted family connections, parents’ credit cards, familial financial security, etc. and think that they have had the same issues as me.  Some of that is because where I live suffers from a severe case of townyism.  Many people haven’t really ever lived anywhere else or spend considerable time in another part of the country or world.  My city is a pretty insular place and unless you are really lucky or well connected in some way, it’s really hard to make it here.  There are many people who have the smarts, talent, ability, and experience to be successful here, but with a population that is predominantly from here taking up whatever jobs there are, it leaves little room for new people to move in.  Ultimately, it just creates a very walled off environment that can often be out of touch with reality and suffer from imaginary victim-hood.

Another terrible thing is that I know I’m not the only one. There are 20-somethings all across the country that are in similar situations.  They graduated college, went off somewhere thinking they’d be forever employed only to get thrown out on their asses in a couple years because of political corruption and affluent greed.  And now our government is paralyzed by partisan bullshit that makes me want to jump off a bridge.  Wages haven’t increased for the bottom 80% or so in 30 years.  Meanwhile they’ve doubled several times over for the most affluent.  And the smaller the percentage at the top the more their salary has increased relative to the rest of Americans.  And now those Americans are out of work, homes, and life.  I’m not talking about the idiots that bought five houses and took out three mortgages. I’m talking about the people who watched it happen and either didn’t realize what was going on or had no power to stop it. The collateral damage.

Republicans don’t want Americans to understand what the debt ceiling really is.  They have the utmost faith in private business to do everything.  At its best you can call it naïveté and it’s worst corrupt.  There is no demand to get the economy going again.  Tax cuts don’t create demand.  Tax cuts don’t create jobs.   Poor people hardly get any money back and if they do it goes to helping pay for bills, rent, or medical care.  Rich people aren’t buying another yacht, Mercedes, or designer shoes because they either don’t need any more or it doesn’t matter because they aren’t made in the US anyway.  The biggest customer the US economy has is the US government.  It’s simple Keynesian economics.  Because common Americans can’t afford to buy anything and stimulate demand that way, the government needs to step in.  That means building things.  Investing in things Americans can make or develop better than other countries.  That means a short-term increase in the national debt with a long-term aim on paying it down which means means-testing for social security (I still don’t understand why this is so controversial), a national health care system, and reduced deductions, tax loopholes and subsidies for corporations.  It means all of those things and more.

But instead, as a country, are trapped. I look at the Republican presidential candidates and they are all jokes.  Not one of them can be taken seriously.  Have we not had our fill of privatizing, evangelical Christians who want to privatize everything but social policy?  I wish there was a strong, serious candidate because then Obama would be challenged mentally, philosophically, and politically. Instead we have the same tried and failed Republican ideas with an extra dash of crazy thrown in.  It is completely demoralizing.

And when I look at all that going on in our country’s leadership, I wonder how the hell I am ever going to have a career, move and live somewhere more appealing to me, and become financially secure in my present and my future.  Instead I’m trapped in a city I don’t like, doing temporary jobs between stints on unemployment, and living paycheck to paycheck.  Meanwhile, employers aren’t hiring anyone that has been unemployed for too long, wages are falling, and my generation will be forever behind in lifetime achievement and earnings because of it.  I look at our politicians, Supreme Court justices and the CEOs of Wall Street, oil, and big business, and I honestly can’t find a bone in my body that wouldn’t mind if they all died tomorrow.  Otherwise, I don’t know how young people are ever going to have a fighting chance in this country or world when the old, connected and corrupt are methodically destroying it and us.