Sometimes You Just Have to Bite the Bullet (& Grow Up)

  Ya know the word respect gets tossed around a lot of late, especially by those 30 & under. And I don't mean that to be a knock against all young people. Most of them are great, hard working individuals. But of those aforementioned people, I think you would be hard pressed to find one who uses the word "disrespectful" the phrase "you're disrespecting me" or claims "they deserve respect" in both their everyday life conversation much less as a point of emphasis in damn near every argument/debate they get in to.

  That said, there has almost always been a disconnect between youth and experience. It goes as far back as the middle ages when a cocky young boy would tell his mother to "hand him another hunk of fuckin mutton" in a very *gulp* disrespectful manner. But in almost every situation from that one to now, that was just a case of youthful vigor.... I mean who among us at one point hasn't had the fantasy when they were young that they were the greatest person on earth, hailed by all; from the lowliest bootlick to the richest Kings of Persia? Oh yeah right, that was just me... Please!

  We've all been like that, but nowadays, it seems like a certain segment of the population have fixated themselves on the idea that respect is given and not earned. They think that if they don't get everything they want without having to work for it, then everyone is against them and we are all disrespecting them but not bowing down to their obvious greatness.

  And don't get me wrong, I'm not just complaining about the young here.... People of all ages think that they should have it handed to them in spades for little or no effort. Some people are content to sit on unemployment and not even try to find any sort of work; Some people are content to collect welfare & live the high life while other people work their asses off and struggle to support their family; and then there are those that are willing to just sponge off others and then complain that getting just a part time job isn't worth it to them just for the sake of working.

  Let me cover the last point first: Any job that "earns" you any amount of money, that you didn't have before is going to gain you a personal profit. That's economics 101 son! Using the argument that you would just be working to pay for the gas to get there is moot. If you earn $25 and spend $20 on gas, then you have "made money" I'm no genius but $5 is more than no dollars, so your argument that "it's not worth it to you to work for that is flawed. Tossing in your argument that you have a kid to support and student loans to pay & that any job less than a full time, good paying job isn't worth the effort proves to me that you can not honestly believe what you're saying. But.... I'm just disrespecting you by bringing it up so I'll just be over here counting how much of my paycheck is going to support your kid.

  Which brings me to point two: I have absolutely no issue helping the less fortunate by way of government subsidised assistance via working peoples earned income but the sad truth is, a good portion of the people that get "welfare" have no intention of looking for work or work "off the books" (yes, I know of someone who does that and it takes every fiber of my being not to call in on them) so they can also take advantage of free government money. This one boils me so much because I have family members who bust their ass 50 hours a week to support their children in a low paying job because of deadbeat fathers but they can not get any "assistance" because they make just over the threshold; yet example A scams the system & lives high (and I mean "High") on the hog. Speaking of high; I am all for people passing (and continuing to pass) drug tests in order to qualify for assistance. You may be pro-pot but in my opinion, if you can afford to buy pot, go ahead, smoke away; but if you need government assistance, then you should not have the money to afford buying, much less using any illegal drugs or alcohol. If you need help and are willing to work in conjoinment with getting help to raise your kid, then I am all for helping people out. But if you want to just sit there and have babies to live for free (and yes, it happens see example A again) then sorry, you need to grow up and realize fun time is over.

  Unemployment: This one is a little harder to cover. There are a lot of people that have been or still are on unemployment and I empathise with them because I have been there. But some people are making a career out of it without even trying to look. Let me preface this one by saying some people should be getting unemployment. If you lost your job, your job was cut or you simply got laid off them fine but there comes a point where everyone should run out of extensions. A friend of mine dated (I am so glad I can say the past tense word on that) a guy that had been on unemployment for almost two years and he wasn't even looking for work until they finally forced his hand. This guy was willing to just sit home and collect money for, essentially free. Look we all pay in to unemployment vis a vis our tax deductions on our paychecks & our employee's have to match that amount and it goes in to a pool for people to draw out of if they get laid off. Okay fine, that's all well and good but with the way our economy has been, a ton of people (me included at one point) lost their jobs and that pool dried up. The government has passed extensions allowing for the out of work to draw longer than normal because the job market was weak. But then we fall in to a dangerous, almost welfarish like situations where some people (said person above) were willing to just sit home and let the free bucks roll in. Look, I looked and looked, Hell I still look and though I was very fortunate with the job I'm about to start, I kept looking until I found something..... anything that would hire me. I worked at Walmart, part time unloading trucks for 8.15 an hour just to work but some people will not do that. It's not worth their time (and takes away the free unemployment cash) to work. Sound familiar?

  This is what's wrong with the country folks. This is why we are in such drastic times. People would rather sit home and collect free, unearned money, than work for it; or they would rather sit home and sponge off others. Something has to change. This laziness, this "I deserve" attitude has to stop. Bringing this all full circle; respect, like a pay check,  has always been earned and not given and until we all realize that, we will never be out of this quagmire we are in.