s a bit frustrating sometimes" horizons dimmed, opportunities limited, X'd out of society and living with the grand lie of economic improvement sugar-coating the rage and smoldering opinion that the government is our adversary. In the worst economic times in seventy-five years the Federal Government offers struggling, long-term unemployed Americans the following assistance programs to regain meaningful employment:
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Yes, it offers them nothing, "Bye-bye! Best of luck to ya!" What should they do, catch the next rocket ship out of town? Take off for Alderaan? A government that tells its struggling people to just f*ck off. If a Typhoon were to hit the Philippines, you'd see videos of smiling young Marines delivering drinking water to the victims by helicopter. Now, take an American city like Detroit. In an effort to collect its back debts, the water works is shutting off residential customers, while giving business a pass. The average bill is $75 and for the long-term unemployed $75 might as well be $750.
So in a city with an adult unemployment rate above 50%, you cut off someone's access to water, so they must either steal it or die. Too bad, Detroit isn't a Canadian city. They'd probably garner some attention that way. Without clean water, how do you get ready for work? How do you go out and look for work? What are we saying to these people, when we as a society do this to them? To not only deny any assistance, but to actually throw stumbling blocks in their path? The job market is already impossible, now let's make it harder. One blemish, one run in with the law and its goodbye Charlie! Circumstances don't matter, that's your name on the court docket, isn't it? And even if it was twenty years ago, we can't be too careful, when hiring a part-time maintenance man.
If we arrested everyone in this country who ever deserved to get a DUI at one time or another, there'd be no one left on the outside to guard the jail. But what of those individuals unfortunate enough to serve as the sacrificial lambs of society, facing financial ruin to teach the rest of us a lesson? Because we're getting tough on drunk drivers, we're ruining their lives and making them unemployable; two beers will put you over the limit. Just about anyone who leaves a restaurant after a couple of glasses of wine is over the legal limit, yet, if you were asked, "Did you see anyone drunk?" you'd answer "no."
Is government targeting a problem or establishing a lottery? X number of drivers on any given day, might be over the limit and some are caught in the police dragnet. Are they solving a problem or merely fleecing the sheep? Applying the legal and financial hammer to a social ill. Good job! They've lost their employment and gone into bankruptcy, attended the mandatory classes, lost husbands, wives and families and are still alcoholics. I think I'd try to help a dog that was sick, before I'd try whipping it; it doesn't seem to accomplish much in the long-term scheme of things.
This month the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports 217,000 new jobs, a little lower down the page they also reported 218,000 workers lost their temp jobs this month. Temp jobs, offering no benefits, no insurance and no future; 7.3 million Americans officially working part-time for economic reasons. Millions of Americans trying to live on $200 or $250 a week, no benefits no insurance and no future. College educated Americans working at the convenience store, or the ever popular "Looking for Interns with Masters Degree to work for start-up."
"Write phony Yelp Reviews!" The catch is you only get paid if the review isn't filtered by Yelp, which it probably will be. I wouldn't believe a Yelp review if I wrote it myself. It so typifies our economy. Yelp offers merchants a free web page and a higher priced web page; guess which one allows them to filter comments? So hypothetically, if Jesus had a Yelp page: "I came all the way across town to see Jesus! All I wanted him to do was to touch me and would he do it? No! I felt cheated, the loaves were stale and the service was terrible." Anyone in business knows, even Jesus would get bad reviews. In Al Capone's day, "Yous should pays us some money fore sompin bad happens to you" was considered more of a crime, than a business model.
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