The American Way

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The other night I caught an episode of JJ (Judge Judy). (We simply refer to her as JJ around here.)

I hadn't been catching JJ much because a lot of time is spent watching the 27-time World Champion, First-Place New York Yankees...but anyway...

JJ had a couple of able-bodied people in front of her who were arguing about money in front of their 15-year old son. It wasn't a ton of money, mind you, because they were both on disability and welfare. The woman made $4,000 taxable dollars and the man hadn't paid taxes since 2008 when he made a total of 8 grand.

"What's wrong with you?" JJ asked.

"My back," the guy said.

"My back hurts every day," JJ said. "I'm not disabled."

Cut to Warren Buffett saying that the ultra-rich should be taxed at a higher rate. He's right.

Yet the problem-solution lies right there in cleaning up those two items. Greed and laziness.

Then there are the poor slobs in the middle. The majority of working Americans who get up and slough off to work each day.

Sore back?

Suck it up.

Wanna' send your kid to college?

Add twenty years to your retirement age.

New golf club?

The wife will beat you with it.

I took my JJ experience to the streets. A couple of my drywall buddies and I hit the subject hard.

"It's the American Way," one of them said. "Steal as much as you can whether you're at the top or the very bottom. Let the guys in the middle pay for it all."

Guys who hang drywall are a brilliant bunch.

And I'm not kidding.

The backbone of the country.

Thank God they're willing to work.

Comments

John said…
This should be sent to opinion pages at every newspaper in the country. You sum up the problem brilliantly! I take back my earlier comment about you being an idiot.
18 August, 2011
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