31K

MSN recently posted an article on there main page about how poor single mothers could make it on 31K a year...WOW, those poor women. Making it on JUST 31K...how do they do it. I have little sympathy considering I make just over half of that and I make decent money for my area. You see, Tennessee is a "right to work" state, or should that be "right to be exploited". Unions have very little pull, considering an employer can fire someone for no reason, or an indefensible reason. I am somewhat conflicted on this subject. I believe that the Unions are a large problem in our society. They were necessary at one time, but there is nothing controlling them.

Take the car industry. Plants in TN pay there workers less than those in MI. I had a retired auto worker from MI tell me that his daughter, a teacher, was barely making it on almost triple of my salary. When I showed no sympathy for her "plight", he changed the subject. Seems nobody wants to talk about the single parents (yes, I am one, but I am male) that make much less than 31K. Do I whine? No. Do I have a union to whine for me? No. Do I want a union to whine for me? I don't know. I have seen the benefits and the damage that a union could do to an economy.

I worked with a guy that was working for a factory that was giving him almost 40 hours overtime. They fired his boss and the new guy that came in hired more people and cut out all overtime. I could not believe the attitude of this guy. I have always thought of OT as extra pay and was happy to get it, but he was counting on it as part of his pay. He got mad at me when I told him that I would have done the same thing as his new boss. He really viewed it as "taking food out of his family's mouth". Since he was single and childless, living alone, I suspect that he was coached.

Yes, I am well below the poverty line, but I see no benefit concert on my behalf. Sorry, Bono, I can't get excited about problems in Africa. You see, I am struggling here in the good ol USA. The richest country in the world, or at least till Bill Gates and Ted Turner decide to start their own country. Hmmm, will it be the Peoples Republic of Microsoft, were everyone will be required to update everything every two years, or Turner Classics of America, were everyone will be required to paint everything black and white, then back with color just a shade or two from the original.

TN has something it calls TNcare. This is a big mess and has just about crippled our economy. So much that our Governor has started cutting people off of it. I am not on it, so I have no health care. I also do not believe that it is the responsibility of my employer or the local, state or federal governments to provide me with it.

I am a minority, yet I am white. I am a poor conservative. I do not want a hand out from my government. I do want a chance to make it on my own. There are more of us than you think.

I would love to start my own business. I am not a minority in the govenments eyes, so no help there. I have no way of borrowing the money because of my current income sucks. State and local governments burden you down with so much paperwork and everyone charges business's more for services like phones and electric. So, even though I believe that the lottery is a tax on people that is bad a math, I believe that that may be the only way I can better myself. Or I could just keep checking my chili at Wendy's.

{insert "Loser" by 3 doors down here}