Something Wrong

Audio here.


I remember as a child watching old black and white sitcom reruns with my family. The shows adults in my family grew up with. No matter what the genre, if it included a family, there was always one common denominator; only one person, normally the male, worked. One working person in a household was able to support a family, have a decent home, a decent car and a decent life.

As I grew older those shows changed. As trickle down economics made its way into the conscious of the American public all of a sudden all these shows had two income earners. At the time, I didn't think anything of it, just how life was. Didn't effect me, I was on my own making a dollar the best I could. Not living the good life, but definitely living.

When I was first married, the one income family example was no longer seen as an American ideal, or even a possibility. There were some successes still. Blue collar workers were making decent money in factories and construction, but that disappeared as my life progressed. By my second marriage, it took two of us earning wages to have the things we wanted. A decent home, decent vehicles, decent clothes; all the trappings that go along with the image that many of us wanted to cultivate. Third marriage, (and no comments are necessary), we both worked, and our surroundings got better. We were at the top of our respective fields. We had health benefits, a retirement plan and savings.

A lot of life spent acquiring things and making sure there was life after work.

Now I look around and see children living with their parents. Everyone working to make that American dream happen. No benefits or retirement make it almost impossible, unless you work from morning to night seven days a week. A horrid thought that is coming back thanks to the dismantling of the only protection workers had; the unions. I think these circumstances have been deliberately imposed upon americans by politicians and the wealthy. What will it take in another generation to live the life that so many Americans enjoyed in the past? Will extended family all be living in one home to be able to afford the trappings of success?

The wealthy control the politicians, and the politicians control the country. Do we notice anyone making an effort to create good paying jobs? I've watched the democrats make an effort every so often, but except for a few, it doesn't seem like they really have their hearts in it. Right now we have another jobs bill going to congress, hopefully that will go through. I watched the republican debate to see what they offer as a new direction. They don't have one. It is the same vision that has turn single earner families into multi earner families. Nothing I see changes the downward direction of the middle class; we've been raped by the rich and conservatives wish to continue the plundering of the country.

With jobs and a bleak economical future being forecast, what are the talking points of conservatives that ring true to their base? Is there something that we need from conservatives these days? Apparently there is something that excites their base. By now most of you have seen the video showing the conservative audience at the debate loudly applauding the death penalty.

Something wrong, or is it just me?


Also posted at Atheist Universe.