Retirement isn't for the poor.

You hear it all the time.  Old people aren't retiring the way they used to and it's keeping young people from finding jobs.  The young are so quick to blame the old for high unemployment, but the old have bills to pay too.  The problem isn't that 60 year olds don't WANT to retire, but that they CAN'T.

The days of pensions are gone.  The few jobs that have them are fazing them out.  Heck, pensions bankrupted Detroit and everyone is scrambling to keep that from being the new norm.   Your retirement savings is up to you and only you, like it or not.  But not all of us are in jobs that pay well enough to allow for savings.

And that's where the real threat to retirement is.  The majority of working people live paycheck to paycheck.  Every last dime is used.  We all want to save, but we all want the lights to stay on too.  Saving up for retirement requires money.  When you don't have spare money, you can't save.  When you can't save for retirement, you can't retire so you work either until your body gives up on you and you're forced out or you die.  That's reality.

It also takes money to play the stock market or buy rental property which are huge risks that most working class folks can't afford to take.

So I don't blame the old for needing to work longer.  I understand that I won't be able to retire either.  I even understand that Social Security isn't the answer to my future money woes.

Corporate America used to take care of their workers, valued their workers.  Not with pensions necessarily, but with fair pay.  Then they placed their own greed over their workers' well being and called it capitalism.  They kept making their fortunes, but at our expense.

So young folks complaining about old folks keeping jobs away from you, don't blame the old.  Blame their bosses.

Cashiers are human too

As a former cashier, I know all too well how horrible a job cashiering can be.  The hours are terrible, the pay is worse and to add salt to your wounds, then you have the customers to deal with.  I don't know what it is about being a customer, about shopping in general that makes us lose our humanity.  I've had customers scream at me, throw things at me and generally be hateful and unpleasant.  Maybe that's just the kind of people shopping in my part of the world, but I have a good feeling that the problem of the hateful customer is universal no matter where they are shopping.

There is a well known saying drilled into every cashier's head: The customer is always right.  Whoever came up with that never cashiered a day in their life.  The customer is only interested in one thing.  They want to get a lot, pay as little as possible for it and to do this as quickly as possible. Money and time consumes us all and it drives us to do some pretty ugly things. When we grab the wrong shampoo and realize at the register that it isn't the one on sale, we will throw a tantrum to force the cashier to give it to us on sale because we can't admit we're wrong and it's too big a hassle to go get the right item.  When the store is out of cranberry sauce on Thanksgiving Day, we will demand that someone pull a can out of their ass because we want our cranberry sauce.  And if the cashier is anything less than cheerful when we act like rude jerks and throw our tantrums, we don't hesitate to call a manager and demand they be fired.

We stop looking at people as human beings the moment they become our servants.  They exist solely to do what we tell them to no matter how irrational it is.  They don't have feelings.  They don't have dignity. Being a customer is the ultimate power trip and everyone likes feeling powerful- especially those who aren't used to it.  That doesn't make it right to treat someone like crap.  You, even when you're a customer at the most high end store ever, are just as human and no better than the cashier.

People tend to blame their anger at the register on poor customer service.  I say poor customers lead to poor customer service.  People don't go into cashiering wanting to be rude.  They're driven their by misuse.  There's only so much crap you can take at poverty wages before you get angry and stop caring about doing a good job.  It's human to rebel.

And it's easier to show kindness when kindness is shown to you.  It takes a better person to show kindness in the face of hate, but we aren't all better people, are we.  The bottom line this holiday shopping season is don't check your humanity at the door.  Think of the person on the other side of the register (whatever side you happen to be on) and treat them with the respect you would want them to show you.  Cashiers are humans too.

Obamacare: Missing The Point

I've often asked people who hate Obamacare what is the difference between being forced to buy car insurance and being forced to buy health insurance.  The answer is always the same.  People need to have car insurance because they can have an accident and need to be able to pay for it.  But we don't get sick and need to be able to pay the doctor?  They often say that it's taking away their freedom by forcing them to buy a type of product.  Again, mandatory car insurance is forcing you to buy a product.  They say that forcing insurers to cover a person regardless of their medical condition or ability to pay for insurance will drive the cost up.  I say, if it does, insurance companies are assholes and these are all stupid arguments. 

I don't fault Obamacare for wanting to change a broken system so that everyone can use it regardless of income.  I have a problem with mandatory health insurance because it doesn't solve the problem that is healthcare in the US.

Let's consider what an insurance company really is.  They're a middle man that you pay so that if you have an accident they can use the money you paid them to "help" you pay any expenses.  Question.  Why do you need the middle man?  Why is the cost of healthcare so exorbitant that you can't afford to pay your bills without using the middle man?

The real problem with healthcare in the US and across the world is greed, that old crux of humanity that makes us act selfishly at the expense of others.  People don't become doctors because they genuinely want to heal the sick.  They become doctors because they want the large paycheck that comes with it.  Pharmaceutical companies make pills for pennies and charge hundreds of dollars for them in order to rake in billions in profits.  The healthcare industry is too busy profiting off the pain of others that they've forgotten they're supposed to be helping them.  Imagine a world where instead of doctors we had healers.  Imagine a world where healing was considered an honor, a noble profession that one took up because they wanted to help and not because they wanted a mansion.

In a world like that, where profit took a back seat, costs would be a lot lower.  There would still be a cost, but it would be a fair cost and not one over inflated to milk as much money from you as possible.  Remember the $12 aspirin?  What do you think the motivation behind that is?

Another aspect driving up costs are the status symbols associated with being a wealthy doctor.  Why do you need marble countertops and travertine floors in a doctor's office?  Why do you need giant flat screen tvs in every room?  Because if you're greedy enough to desire to be rich, you want to flaunt it and that means you need more money to pay for it all.  I would rather have linoleum floors and functioning equipment over travertine.   I want the money I'm paying to go to my care and not toward making the doctor look good. Plus eliminating unnecessary bells and whistles will bring costs down.

Another factor is that so many people are in such bad shape that they have to use the system no matter how bad it is.  If folks took better care of themselves, ate right and exercised, they wouldn't have all the health issues that keep them slaves to the industry.  Other than regular check ups and emergencies, they wouldn't use the system as much.  This puts the power in the hands of the patients because doctors can't be millionaires without patients to pay their salaries.  If they had to come to us, the competition could very well keep costs down. 

Perhaps the biggest problem facing us is the amount of apathy toward the problem.  People are afraid to shake up the status quo.  They fall victim to the industry's threats and shy away from anything that would hurt the industry's power in response.  As much as they complain, all the talk of death panels and what not keeps them from action.

And that is the problem with healthcare.  Greedy little bastards financially raping the sick and a populace that is too stupid to take care of themselves or fight back.

But if we could change it, if we could turn doctors into healers and remove the greed, then everyone could have healthcare when they needed it.  Once the costs were low, people wouldn't need insurance companies because they could afford to pay their bills on their own.

I'm told by those who hate Obamacare that we have the best healthcare system in the world and shouldn't mess with it.  What is the point of having the best healthcare in the world if no one can afford to use it?  Bringing costs down requires a radical change in thinking but it's a needed change and the only way to solve the healthcare problem.  Will Obamacare be that change?  No.  Because it misses the point.  We should be focussing on changing the people running the scam that is the healthcare industry and not on getting more people to use middle men to pay for it.

My low opinion of Syria

Syria is yet another backwards Middle Eastern country ruled by an evil dictatorship.  That appears to be the norm in that part of the world, but what do you expect when you allow religion to run your government?  But Assad, the evil power hungry tyrant that he is, may or may not have used chemical weapons on his own people and America, the world's savior, cannot tolerate that.

Here's the thing for me though.  Assad and his goons have been killing his detractors since they first began fighting for their freedom.  The rest of the world just gave the rebels some more guns and sat back and watched.  Suddenly chemical weapons come in the picture and we're like "Hey! That's not right!" and say we need to bomb them.  Why now?  Why not 2 years ago?  Does it matter how a massacre is carried out or that a massacre happens?

Let's be honest.  The US has never gone to war over something that didn't serve US interests and preventing chemical weapons from getting into the hands of their enemies is a very big interest.  It only took the possibility of Hussein having weapons to convince the world to attack Iraq.  We have incontrovertible proof that Syria has chemical weapons, but the rest of the world is fine not doing anything about that. So that is why America is beating the war drums now. Any lives they may save from Assad's tyrade is just a lucky happenstance.  The real goal is to protect the US from jihadists using chemical weapons on Americans.

But as much as I would like to see dangerous chemical weapons kept away from the crazy jihadists, I know that any US led military action in Syria is doomed to fail.  It will not stop the bad guys from getting the weapons.  It's a fact that a lot of the rebel fighters are affiliated with crazy jihadists.  It won't stop the war in Syria. There is no plan to remove Assad from power.  It WILL piss off the jihadists and increase anti west sentiment across the Middle East.   It WILL piss off Russia (and her tyrant in charge) into taking action against the US.  It WILL drag the US into another war it can't afford either financially or physically to fight.  It WILL cause tension and grief and wind up being as pointless as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

So as noble as it may seem to want to stop the bloodshed and destroy the weapons, I can't support going to war in Syria.  It won't prevent innocents from dying and it won't serve the US well.

This shouldn't be America's fight.  The entire world should be dragging Assad out of office but they won't and why not? Because dictator Putin says no. Because it's in Russia's interest to keep Assad around.  Because Russia makes money off of Syria and making money is more important than stopping genocide.  The US can't fight this war alone and that is why they shouldn't. Russia needs to do the right thing, put the all mighty dollar aside and stop Assad from killing civilians. 

Sorry to the Syrians who are suffering.  Blame Russia.

Corey Montieth: not an idol.

I would be lying if I said I was not offended that Corey Montieth's death is being treated like a national tragedy.  Why are people holding vigils for him like he's some sort of hero?  He's yet another celebrity drug addict that died from their own stupidity.   Why do we worship these kinds of people?  Why do we celebrate their talents oblivious to their faults? So John Belushi was funny. He sqaundered that on drugs.  River Phoenix, died too soon thanks to addiction.  Corey Montieth?  Same train wreck.  If celebrity addicts should teach us anything, it's that fame shouldn't give you an easy ride or absolve you of your sins.  It should teach us that celebrities aren't any better than the rest of us.

We have an epidemic in this country. We are a society that not only condones drug abuse but encourages it with disastrous consequences.  Drug addiction destroys lives and we just let it.  In some states, we even fought to legalize it.  We shouldn't admire bad behavior.  We certainly shouldn't give weepy speeches about how much the dead drug addict deserves to be admired by his legions of followers.  If anything his admirers should be angry and disappointed at how stupid he was to use drugs. His girlfriend should feel guilty for not doing more to help him kick his addiction and then use her star power to help others kick theirs.

Instead of immortalizing celebrity bad behavior, we should learn from it.  We should work harder to fight drug addiction.  We should mourn Corey Montieth's loss as we mourn the loss of any human, but we should not forget the reason he died or over look the lesson just because he could sing.  We shouldn't even be criticized for not worshipping celebrity addicts like Corey Montieth.

Our role models say a lot about who we are as a person.  They should say something good about us.  The tragedy of Corey Montieth's death, like Belushi and Phoenix and countless others, isn't that he was a talented man cut down in his prime.  It's that he did it to himself and we sat back and watched.

The reason you can't find a job may be you

I live in the hood.  I see the hood everyday.  I interact with the various characters (so stereotypical it's scary) that are an all too common sight and I have come to the conclusion that the biggest reason why unemployment is so high in the hood is because of the attitudes prevalent among those who inhabit the hood and the perceptions those attitudes have created in society.

Hear me out before you start accusing me of prejudice.

Let's take an honest look at the hood, shall we.  The hood is a barren wasteland of decay, a wild outlaw state filled with hardships and danger that have embittered and corrupted the hearts and minds of the people who are unfortunate enough to be trapped there.  It is a prison for the impoverished because once you are there, once you are faced with that level of poverty, your options for escape are very few.  It's easy to fall into despair, to give up and become hardened and jaded and so many people do.

But by doing that, they take on the very persona that will hold them back, that keeps them from success and ultimately traps them even more.   They start to ACT like they are from the hood.

What does it mean to act like you're from the hood?  It means you lose your moral code.  You skew your ethics to accommodate your situation.  You stop caring about the things that can help you like education or hard work because you don't see the point in trying. You aren't getting big enough rewards, no instant gratification so you don't bother.  You don't mind breaking a few laws because that is the only way you feel empowered.  You may over drink or do drugs because you are desperate for relief from the hardships.  You feel you have to behave certain ways, dress certain ways in order to fit in - bad attitudes and pants sagging so low you need two pairs of boxers to cover yourself and are forced to waddle when you walk which for some strange reason, you think is cool.  There is rampant drug use and crime and gang violence and drama.  Bad weaves and fake nails.  All of it is handled with that horrible bad attitude, with an often misplaced and violent anger and a nonchalance that leaves a bad taste in the mouth when they aren't trying to pick a fight to prove how hard they are.  In other words, you take on aspects that are unappealing to everyone outside the hood because some rapper made a song about it and you mistakenly believe you are supposed to act that way.  Don't even get me started on ebonics.

Mainstream society sees these bad behaviors and forms a very negative opinion.  They say, if you're from the hood you must be low class, uneducated, lazy workers and can't be trusted.  As horrible as that sounds, a lot of the time it ends up being true because, once again, those in the hood accept that they are supposed to be that way.  We know not every one in the hood is ghetto trash, but so many people act like ghetto trash that it's hard to give someone the benefit of the doubt once you know where they're from.  Stereotypes are not only dangerous, they are hard to get rid of.

But what do employers look for in future employees?  For starters, they look at your appearance.   They want someone who wears their pants correctly or doesn't have a skirt so short they need a second hair net.  They want a clean appearance.  Not too much make up or grills in your mouth .  They want nails that are not six inches long.  They look at the way you speak.  Good grammar matters.   It tells the employer that you will be able to communicate well with customers or coworkers.  Once you have a job, the way you behave at work matters as well.  Those who do a good job get ahead while those who do the minimum required because they're too busy gossiping don't.  Your on the job behavior can also determine whether or not your former employer puts in a good word for you when whatever job you're applying for next asks them.  This happens.

Employers judge you the moment they see you.  If you don't physically make the grade, you probably won't get another chance.   They judge you by your initial behavior so you have to check your ghetto-tude at the door.

Finally, education is invaluable.   You're being hired for the skills you have so it may be a good idea to actually get some skills.  That means not only going to school but paying attention while you're there.

In short, if someone in the hood wants to gain a job, they need to lose the hood inside them.  Pull your pants up, learn proper English and stay in school.   Avoid crime and teen pregnancy.  If you want a potential employer to take YOU seriously, then you must take THEM seriously.

Sometimes you have to look at yourself honestly and say maybe the problem isn't them.  Maybe the problem is you.  You can be poor and still have class.  You can be poor and still be an honest person. You can be poor and still have an education.  You don't have to be hood just because you were born there and I really really REALLY hope more people in the hood would recognize that.

More on the spying thing

There are two very distinct sides in the issue of governments spying on it's citizens.   They can both be pretty silly.  On the one hand, you have those who say the government has no right to put anyone under surveillance at any time period.  On the other, people are saying that we need to let the government do what it has to do to defend our nation no matter what rights that may violate.

Regardless of whether or not you think Snowden is a revolutionary or a double agent who was on China's payroll, you have to more practical than this.

Whether you like it or not, we don't live in a friendly world.  We live in a world where a lot of people want to do bad things to us.  We live in a world where governments are fighting each other over pretty much everything.   We have terrorists among us right here in the US.  The Boston marathon bombing was proof of that.  So to be reasonable,  we need someone to look out for us.  We need people to do the dirty work that keeps us safe.  Part of that is going to involve surveillance on American soil and abroad and that means running the risk that someone completely innocent of wrong doing may end up in a surveillance video or have their phone conversation temporarily listened in on.  The question we have to ask is, is our safety worth it?  If you like the idea of foiling would be suicide bombers, you have your answer.

But another question to ask is what crosses the line?   The answer to that is simple.   Surveillance of people for no other reason than because you can crosses the line.   It's one thing to spy on someone you have credible evidence (or at least reasonable doubt that could stand up in court) of doing something that threatens national security.  It's another to spy on the random blogger because you don't like their message.   There needs to be rules that govern when it is appropriate to spy on someone and when it isn't.

I don't claim to be an expert on spycraft (or even on knowing if spycraft is a real word).  I do know that powerful people need to be monitored.  Checks and balances keep us safe from over reaching authority. So, as difficult as it is to spread light in a world as dark as spying, and recognizing that congress isn't the most trustworthy of institutions,  it's all we got right now so it will have to do.

But I want to make a social point as well regarding the level of outrage from the public.   People,  you tweet about your sex lives.   You plaster Facebook with pictures of you, your kids, every one you meet. There are those of you who put unsuspecting people on YouTube without their permission because you thought it was funny.   Why are you just now concerned that people are seeing these things?  How can a people who place so little value on privacy in their personal lives really be that outraged that somewhere a voyeur may be enjoying watching it?  Do you have any right to be outraged?

Just had to get that off my chest.  Now I'm going to post this on my Facebook page.

The de-evolving human

It's really easy to blame the dumbing down of society on the increasing number of flaws in our public education, but if we're honest, our educational institutions (particularly in the US) have never been any good.  We have  traditionally never given much effort to educating our young which is why teachers make so very little money, why most schools have limited tools like text books or computers and why some schools in the South still refuse to teach the idea of evolution.  The fact is, no one ever bothered to pay any real attention to education.

We don't hold teachers accountable for not teaching-  teachers unions protect tenure and not quality of work.  We aren't forcing parents to take an active interest in their children's education.  We don't fund schools. We focus more on sports than on math. We create useless tests and seem to think that a multiple choice test is all you need to judge academic success.  The fact that our entire curriculum involves prepping students to pass state exams is criminal.

Here is what I'd like to see change.   First of all, there is no one more important in our society than our teachers.   Teaching needs to be treated like an honorable profession.  Teachers should be well compensated (pay raises are a good start) and held to very high standards in return.  They must continually prove their worthiness to teach not only by student test scores (which are easily manipulated) but also by testing the teacher.   Why wouldn't we demand excellence from the people moulding our future generations?

We also need to make sure every school has the tools it needs to teach effectively.   No more basing school funding on tax revenue because that only short changes the working class kids.  We need a general state fund that will fund each school equally.

We need to make sports strictly extracurricular and in no way tied to school.  Schools are for learning math and science and not for learning the art of making a touchdown.

No more rote memorization.   Instead let's teach critical thinking.   We need to have strong testing but in order to gauge progress.  You shouldn't need a final exam to determine if the student passes the grade if you're doing your job.

We need to keep an open mind.   Recognize that a theory is ok to discuss even if your holy book says something different.  We need to present the facts and allow the student to make up their own mind.  There is nothing wrong with dialogue.

Last but not least, we need to hold parents and legal guardians responsible for their children's education as well.   They need to be involved in monitoring their child's progress and in making sure their child is even making progress.  Parents and teachers need to be in constant contact with one another whether it means mailing each parent a monthly progress report that goes into more detail than the report card or monthly parent teacher conferences.

Learning doesn't stop when school lets out and we shouldn't treat it like it does.  If we don't instill a love of learning in our kids at an early age, you might as well hang it up.  A good education leads to good decisions which in turn leads to a better life.  Unless we want our future generations to be stupid and de-evolved worthless scum, we have to do better than this.

The lost art of the written word

So JK Rowling wrote a book under a male pen name.   The book received ok reviews.  Some said it was a good book for a newbie.  Some said it was mediocre.   It had its ten minutes of fame and was heading into obscurity the way most books do until the truth came out, the celebrity of Harry Potter was attached to it and it became an instant best seller.   Regardless of whether or not you think Rowling planned it this way, you have to admit this speaks volumes about us.

It says that we will buy anything that has a famous name attached to it regardless of how crappy it is.  It says that we don't care about quality especially in the publishing world.  When I think of all the brilliant writers out there who are being ignored because they aren't famous enough,  I cringe.   When I think of celebrities like Glen Beck with nothing relevant to say whose books are flying off the shelves, I cringe again.

I just can't help but feel like the written word is a lost art.  The beauty of the page has been replaced by something dumbed down for stupid people and we aren't stupid are we?

Is Snowden really a whistle blower?

So I have to ask the question.  Is Edward Snowden really a whistle blower?  Is it really that big a revelation that the US has spies?  Was it really a secret that they spied on other countries and sometimes on their own?  It seems silly to think so.  We are a generation that grew up on spy movies.  You can tour the Pentagon.

Echelon is not a secret and what did people think it did? It monitors our phone calls.  The Bush administration publically signed new laws expanding the government's authority for surveillance on American citizens so are we angry that they didn't keep that surveillance just on Muslims or are we really stupid?  And why is it ok for a Republican president to spy on us but not for a Democratic one?  I question whether Snowden is a whistle blower at all because nothing he has said so far is a revelation to me.  I expect my government to do certain not so nice things to protect our nation because, and here's the kicker, EVERY NATION DOES IT.

I also take issue that Snowden, who claims he's all about freedom, blew his whistle and then ran off to China,  notorious for its oppression.  Maybe he isn't a whistle blower at all?  Maybe he's a double agent working with Chinese cyber attackers.  We have had a problem with that lately.  But why start any rumors?

And then he runs from communist China to communist Russia.   He tried to flee to communist Cuba but couldn't get there so he's considering going to Latin America, known for it's dictators.  Odd choices to me.  If he's worried about any extradition treaties,  I don't think the lack of one will save him in the long run.  Even a dictator like Putin with an axe to grind against the US doesn't want him around.  I think he will settle on whatever nation is the highest bidder for his information.

If he really values freedom though , he most certainly will not be happy in a communist regime.

So is he really a whistle blower?  A Chinese agent? A confused guy who who's pretending he's in a spy movie?  Will he get a book deal?  Who knows, but he is definitely not a whistle blower.

It's called freedom.

It is human nature to be selfish.  That doesn't make it ok.  It just means that it happens to the best of us.  Hard truth: the only freedom we truly value is our own.

We want freedom of speech but only if it's speech we agree with.  For example, the US Supreme Court (socialist bastards) just passed a law prohibiting people from protesting their rulings on court grounds. This denies people the opportunity to make their opinions heard.  The Texas legislature (more socialist bastards) recently banned protestors of the abortion ban from speaking in the capital in order to silence their critics.  The bill will pass but only because it is no longer able to be contested.

Which brings me to my next item.  We want people to have the freedom to choose their own healthcare (which is why we hate Obamacare) but only if the healthcare decisions being made are ones we approve of (which is why we want to ban abortion, why we require children be vaccinated by law or why we forbid assisted suicide).  It offends us to be told what we can and can't do with our bodies, but we feel well within our rights to tell someone else what to do with theirs.

There's more.  We want the freedom to marry who we love but only if that person is of the opposite sex.  We want the right to practice whatever religion we choose but only if everyone else practices the same one we do.  We want the right to vote but we actively seek ways to remove the voting power of people who don't vote for the same party we do.  The list goes on an on.

We like to say we're all for freedom but we are all big fat liars.  We are selfish.  It's sad, but it is true.  You can't have freedom unless everyone is included.  Otherwise you have oppression, hate and chaos.  You have to be willing to give freedom to everyone if you truly want to be free.

If you value freedom, let gay people get married.  Let women choose for themselves whether or not they become mothers.  No more religious wars.  Chillax, Sweeties.  It's called freedom.