The Anchoress
The government does not seem capable of practicing simple reasoning, here. My 10 year old niece could tell you that this is madness.
All those “smart” people in Washington–that “idiotic cerebral meritocracy,”–they can’t figure this out, or they just don’t care?
Of course, if the kind of federal paycheck you’re seeking is a social security check–you know, the thing you’ve paid into all your life in expectation that it will help to support you in your dotage–well, you might still get your check, but you won’t be getting the raises that the fed workers (and union members) continue to enjoy. No, oddly enough, for the social security set, they’re kind of in the same boat as us private sector folks: no raises for us.
I feel like my relationship to my son’s college is a microcosm of our relationship to the government. Every year tuition goes up appreciably, even though our salaries have gone stagnant. There are union workers on campus, you see, and they must get their raises, even if services to the students must be cut to ensure them. So, it’s cut services or bleed the students, and either way the cafeteria has too many carbs. The scholarships don’t go up, but the tuition does. We’re trying to keep his student loan debt down to about $30,000, so our contribution, year after year, just gets bigger and bigger.
No matter how you try, you cannot make a finite amount of income cover an ever-growing, undisciplined debt. You can’t do it in the household, you can’t do it in the schools and you cannot do it within government.
Why can’t our “smart policy,” ivy-league-educated betters in Washington figure that out?
I still believe that people can be creative and find ways to support themselves. I believe in entrepreneurship. It just seems like the government is making it more difficult to grow a small idea into something viable, doesn’t it? And the chattering classes cannot move from their entrenched templates.
As for Buster and his schooling, I thank God he only has one year left. What will Buster do with his degree, you ask? Good question. I actually wondered–half seriously–if he might not be better off dropping out of school and learning how to tend bar, but he convinced me that with three years under his belt, he might as well finish and at least have the degree to show for his loan payments. “Also,” he said, “there are no jobs right now, so if I left school, I’d just be one more person trying to find anything to do. I’ll get the degree. If I end up going into the service, it might help get me into officer’s training. And if worse comes to worst, hey, I’ll become a school teacher. Or a federal employee. Or a bouncer.”
My son, the bouncer.
Hmmmm…according to Joe Queenan, if he wants to be a bouncer, he’ll have to get in line with the Harvard grads.
I’m guessing the clubs are being patronized by the federal workers?
Meanwhile, the bad guys have clearly sniffed out the weak horse, again.
Maybe bartending is the way to go, after all. After reading all that, and looking at the dead dolphins on the beach, and watching the deliberate provocation of Israel, to what end one does not even want to imagine, I’m almost up for a Guinness. How about you?
Related:
In comments on another thread, Myssi reminds me of the psalm of the common man.
UPDATED:
Over at Why I am Catholic, Webster Bull gives us something wonderful, true and wise
A must read
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