Common Sense [WTB]

Hey, people... what's shakin' your bacon these days? Crappy jobs, high cost of living and a grinding urge for the good life that now seems so far away? Yeah, I know, some of you are doing just fine. After all, you've got a computer or you wouldn't be reading this unless you're in a school or library, right? I'm doing just fine myself, thanks. I have a nice little home, can afford electricity and gas, a nice car and, best of all, some extra spending money to make life interesting and enjoyable.

But don't get me wrong, I didn't get there the easy way and there's no silver spoons up my butt. My parents both died young, in their 40's, and they didn't have the chance to hand me the keys to any paradise they built for me to inherit. Nope. Both of them worked hard all their short lives and the dream house they built wasn't even begun to get paid for. The bank got it all when dad died and, a couple of years later, my mom passed away pretty much penniless.

They did teach me one valuable lesson, though, and that was to always work hard and save a little if I could. Not that it was an easy recipe for success. No, I had to take three hundred and sixty-five steps forward so that the two hundred and ninety nine steps backwards wouldn't hurt so much.

Anyways, that's not what I'm going to rant about. I just wanted you to know what my early life was like after my parents died, all those decades ago, back in the 70's.

You see, I was just getting out of school in 1968. Those were really different times than today. Things were good for a guy that didn't mind going to work every day. Jobs were easy to get and you actually even had a choice on what you wanted to go for. If a job didn't agree with you, then it was a cinch to find another one to go to even before you tell your present boss you were leaving. No sense getting into it, but I had so many different jobs between age 10 and 24, it'd be senseless to count them all. Then I got married.

Kids didn't take long after that and it was time to look for a serious job that had a future, a pension and other benefits, so that this poor fool could keep food on the table and a regular home over my new family's collective heads. I'd learned by that time that moving here and there just made things tough. Growing up, I'd moved from Europe to Canada and house to house every two years. That meant five public schools and two high schools. I didn't want that for my boys. I wanted them to make permanent friends where they grew up. That meant staying in one town and one house for at least twenty five years, which I managed to pull off.

OK... you're likely wondering where the beef is in all of this, right? Well, I'm getting to it. I just need to set it up in order to show you some of my common sense first, so you know what kind of guy I am.

A few years after I hitched my wagon to that filly called family, I found what you'd call a 'factory job'. Now, you have to understand the mindset during those days in the early 70's. If you were in 'polite' company and it came out you worked at a Ford plant or anything 'factory', you got sneered at by snobs that either worked for 'professional' types or were professional themselves. Anyone that had a job in the service sector was, on that ladder of dubious merit, lower than dirt... seriously. They were so looked down on, they were treated socially like East Indian Untouchables. Scum across the tracks who lived in :shk: apartments and raised snot-nosed kids in raggedy clothing. Subhumans one step below blue collar workers.

Yessiree.

The 'class' system was very alive and well back in those days of sex, drugs and rock and roll and did my generation ever get it on! Woot! We thumbed our collective noses at those up-tight snobs and told them we didn't care. All we wanted were decent jobs, paychecks and enough to get by on and that's exactly what most of us did right from the 70's through to the new millenium. We had good common sense.

So what did those snobs up and do? They started looking at all these 'lesser folk' like me and thought to themselves that we were doing far too well with our factory jobs. We had unions that upgraded our pay according to the cost of living, paid for dentist and doctor visits and some even had daycare for our kids! Now, that didn't sit well with them at all. It wasn't right that an entire generation should find satisfaction in what was considered 'menial' work, getting their hands dirty daily with long hours and midnight shifts that, damn it, paid way too damn much (in their eyes).

That's right... they started yipping away at the government, telling them that these people are too freaking comfortable and, look over there... cheap labour, without unions, was just a continent or two away. *evil grins* The government always listens to the rich folk, so, of course, they acted on behalf of those snobs. The government even had the nerve to call their efforts to kill the middle class the 'Common Sense Revolution', which is a hoot and a half. All sorts of new jargon started showing up: Privatization, factory relocation, free trade agreements, 2-tier employment, grandfather clauses, contract work, part time jobs, back-to-work legislation and a raft of other ways and means with which they could reduce the 'good' factory jobs' to as few as possible.

Now, the snobs are on top of the world with million dollar homes and multi-million dollar salaries. Yay! But, wait, it's never enough, right? They need more and more because a 150' luxury yacht would be great for wintering in Dubai, where real estate is to die for, you know?

So, here we are, folks, the great political Common Sense Revolution is over. They've won. No more good factory jobs. Indeed, no more factories, unless you're lucky enough to still get a job building cars or something. Even then, forget about pensions and benefits, because you're not going to get them. That money is needed for 'other things', like corporate jets, multiple mansions all over the place and stockpiling nice shiny gold ingots in carefully hidden wallsafes.



Silly snobs. They just don't understand that the true common sense of real common people always fights back. They should enjoy the yellow glitter while they can.

Totally amazing entry. I read the first paragraph, and went back to SnF, and after I read, I must compliment you on a well thought rant. You nailed many things spot on.

Kudos.

Who is to say a newer member doesn't have what it takes?

This, so far is my favorite entry.

reply to post by momoney


I think you hit the nail right on the head.

People always talk about class envy. They think it is the little guy who is envious of the rich but, I think it may just be the other way around. The rich want to keep their aristocratic lifestyles to themselves and they don't want the "little people" getting too uppity. When the little guy starts getting closer to living like them, they push back to keep us in our place. The rich can't stand to see everyone moving up in society so they push back and force us down.

The rich are the ones who envy the middle class and their ability to survive independently. They think they are the only ones who should be financially secure. They know they haven't earned their extreme wealth and seeing hard working laborers get ahead makes them nervous. When you have the most to loose, you live in constant fear of it being taken away.

Very nice.

I flagged you, and now I want to read it again.

Very nice.