How to Effectively Attack the Elderly without Really Trying

If one of my goals is to become a better writer, and becoming a better writer takes practice, then I am already at it by writing.  But another one of my goals is to connect with other people, and I see no better way to do that than with a good fight.

I delivered a paper at the Purdue Comparative Literature conference in 2010, and it was not the public speaking that terrified me the most; it was engagement with my ideas.  I was also afraid to defend my Master’s thesis because for some reason, I can get unsure of myself when I am having to make a claim and defend it.  I did end up doing well at both, but I still tend to avoid religious and political debates.  I think the reason for this fear stems from not knowing as much as about any given subject as I’d like to, but then again, I want to have complete knowledge and understanding, which is, of course, not possible. 

Let me give an example.  We have heard recently in the news that if the US government doesn’t raise the debt ceiling by the beginning of August, we’re in for some serious consequences.  For instance, President Obama has said that Social Security checks won’t go out unless an agreement can be reached.  When asked my opinion on the matter, I didn’t really know what to say except, “Well, I don’t really understand how the government works in terms of financial matters.  I’m lucky if I can get my own checkbook balanced (which I don’t even actually do), so I’m sure that there is all kinds of stuff going on behind the scenes that I don’t know, and that’s why everyone is freaking out.” 

Even as I gave that answer, I knew it was a coward’s cop-out.  Even I know that you have pull in at least as much money as you spend, or you go into debt.  I also know that many of our elderly depend upon those checks to live so to take them away without having anything to replace them is…I don’t even want to finish that thought.

So, to that end, here’s today’s Fight Question:

When President Obama or anyone else says that Social Security needs to be discontinued (it was after all supposed to only be a temporary measure in the Depression), is that in effect an attack on the elderly?  Let’s face it; many of our elderly are not as mobile as they used to be, and they are not in as good of health as they used to be.  Do we really expect them to march to Washington in protest?  And if they are not as able to make their voices heard by peaceful assembly, then it seems like Congress would be able to do whatever they want to do against the weakest among us. 

Debt Ceiling

I never hear Congress threatening to lower their own salaries; they always go after education, Medicare and Social Security—children and the elderly. 

Is our government going after the weakest among us whenever there is a money crisis?

For Lack of a Better Title?

My father purchased my first computer when I was about 14 or 15 years old, and the unmistakable sound of dial-up still holds fond memories for me.  We didn’t have a computer class in school as such; we would go to the computer lab for one hour each Friday and play games like Wheel of Fortune and Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego?  When I got into high school, we played Oregon Trail and SimFarm.  At the time, I remember thinking how utterly silly it was that as computer technology was on the rise, we were putting our learning time to use by playing games.  Now I think I see what our teachers were doing; they were using games to help us get familiar and comfortable with computers. 

I, however, needed little prompting.  To this day I hold the firm belief that there is nothing I can do to a computer that is so bad that it can’t be fixed (by someone else, of course), and so I would open programs and click on every button just to see what would happen.  I remember downloading tons of pictures of X-Men and everything else comic book related I could find.  I remember when Stan Lee launched his web comics (I think it was 7th Portal, but alas, not being able to actually see it, it doesn't stick out in my mind; my dial-up was too slow to process them), and I first began hearing about DSL and high speed internet.  I would spend hours on the computer everyday talking with my friends on AIM and how delighted I was every time I heard “You’ve Got Mail.”  I considered myself internet savvy, and although I was never skilled enough to hack someone else’s computer or anything like that, I really felt that I knew my way around. 

Somewhere along the way that changed.  I’m not sure when it happened, but I suspect it was a long process.  Many parents tell their children to get off of the computer because they’re not “out there” living life to the fullest.  As I look back on how many hours I used to spend on the internet, I have no regrets (but consider that I lived in a super tiny town where absolutely nothing ever happened).  I made friends online back in the day, but we’ve lost touch now.  And when I look over my Facebook page, I realize that there is not one single person in my list of friends that is not someone I already know “in the real world.”  Some people may believe that you can’t really form friends with people that you have never seen, but that’s not true.  What makes a friend is someone that you have shared experience and emotion with, someone you share ideas with and someone you can safely confide in.  There is nothing about a computer or the internet that prevents such an event from occurring. 

I believe that human beings are explorers at the very core of their being, and I realize now that I have spent most of my computer time writing papers, doing research for classes, and checking email.  After I complete those “tasks,” I log off, but the internet is a whole huge world out there, and I am ready to discover its secrets like Cousteau explored the (real) ocean and Captain Kirk explored (I really hope it's real) space.  But I want to do more than that, too; I want to add my two cents in, but that’s going to take a lot of practice.  The only kind of writing I’ve been doing for the last few years is academic writing, but it’s time for me to put that behind me as I look for a new job and start to reinvent myself into the person that I want to be. 

But who do I want to be?  Do I want to be a teacher?  That’s what I have been doing the last few years, and while I find it immensely rewarding, I’m not sure that is who I am.  Do I want to be a writer?  I think so, but I also think that I’m not so good at it.  I am choosing to believe the old adage that “practice makes perfect.”  The more you do a thing, the better you get at it.  Like any good scientist, let’s put that to the test!

Response to Pete (thanks for joining the conversation!)

This is where I need some more information because you start talking about investments and ponzi schemes, and you lose me. Maybe it's too closely related to math, the only subject in school that would send me running and screaming in the other direction.  Maybe it's the way I've buried my head in the proverbial sand in order to avoid having to think about anything that is too unpleasant.  Or maybe these glimpses I get from the news alerts on my phone are finally beginning to crack through the hardened exterior that I have placed around me.  If it's not information about comic books, I check out.

Well, no more!  Now, I may be new to the concept of even having a political discussion, but I'm having a hard time understanding, if it is true that Social Security has been whittling away to nothing, why hasn't someone had the foresight to raise taxes? Normally, I would not support raising taxes, since politicians seem to have my skill and expertise when it comes to balancing a budget or deciding how funds are allocated, but even if it is true that the Baby Boomer population has drained dry the Social Security well, then why don't we start thinking of ways to fill it back up?  For instance, I'm sure most of the money that Congress squanders on useless deals and bridges to nowhere could be used instead on social programs designed to actually help people.

And I've heard before the arguments that Social Security is a (relatively) new social program, and I've even heard that it's time we finally put an end to what was supposed to be a temporary, depression-era fix, but we have to realize that we are dealing with our current situation and not the situation faced in 1935. Taxes are the lowest they've been since 1958 (Taxes), and I know that I by no means have a clear and complete understanding of how most things work, but it just seems logical that when the money runs out, more must come in to take its place.  The primary condition for instituting Social Security is the same now as it was then; elderly people begin to lose the ability to work and provide and care for themselves the older they get.  If they are unable to work, and their families are unable to put back enough money to care for them, exactly what are they supposed to do?  Many people think that having to rely on Social Security is evidence of poor financial planning throughout one's life.  Without having any actual evidence, I can only suspect that this belief stems from the erroneous idea that working means you have enough money.  We learned from my example of the young lady working two jobs that this is by no means the case.  You can work 60 hours a week, but because minimum wage has not kept up with the cost of living, and because our politicians work so diligently to keep minimum wage the lowest they possibly can, people are simply unable to put back enough money for retirement; they struggle to meet the financial demands of living everyday and providing clothes, food and shelter for themselves and their families. Providing for their own retirement is a pipe dream.

And when I say that people are having to work to death, I was being a little hyperbolic, but then again, not really.  What I would like to see is a study detailing the stress that a minimum wage job wages upon the body.  Think about not being able to properly care for your family, and compound that by days, week, months and years.  Stress does have an enormous impact upon the body, so having to work all the way until one drops dead is nowhere near the solution that I would create if I could push a magic button.  The stress of not being able to live a good life, much less a truly productive one, is a problem that can be solved.  Doing away with Social Security, or allowing the funds to dry up, seems to me to be a direct attack upon the elderly.  But as you say, that is the way of the government. Who do they go after?  Children and the elderly--the weakest among us.  How many times is education, Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security going to be threatened before the rest of us say "enough is enough"?

Do you know I really suspect?  I suspect that there is plenty of money in our government's coffers; they just spend it in ways that if we knew, we would not approve of:  Government Waste.

And as to how much the government officials make themselves, I would never say that they make too much until I learn exactly what it is that they do in a day.  It seems that too much in our country we castigate people for how much money they make--teachers don't make enough (I happen to agree with this one), and athletes make far too much. Education is the only way that people can acquire self-knowledge because the only way to truly know yourself is to understand the world and your place in it.  Our government's attack on education must be stopped.  But as for athletes making too much money, they draw in huge revenues for the owners of the teams; shouldn't they get a piece of that pie since the pie only exists because of them?  NFL Labor Troubles

I realize that my analogy of sports figures and politicians may not fly, but until I know what their exact day to day job description is, I can't know if they make too much.  The president's salary doesn't seem so high given the enormous weight upon his shoulders:  President's Salary.  But what scares me the most is the idea that some believe we should just cut salaries, social programs and education.  Why don't we stop building bridges to nowhere and use that money for education, Social Security and roads?  Why are we paying for politicians to take an Around The World trip just to look at billboards ads?

The money is there for what we need; we just need to spend it better.  And if it's not there, then heavens, raise taxes!  In a government that is for us all, it's time we paid in to make sure it can keep protecting us.  That is the function of government after all--to protect the weak from the strong.

Disturbing News

I've been sitting here at the computer for awhile trying to decide what to write.  It seems like this first blog posting should be given considerable thought because it might set the tone for all that follow after it.  Writing is not as easy as some people might have you to believe.  There are so many choices to consider like audience, style, tone and approach. Who am I writing to?  Do I want to be serious?  Do I want to try humor, which is often so hard to pull off on the printed or web page that what the author thought was funny, the audience finds dull, pedantic or just downright offensive?  This isn't academic or professional writing, however, so maybe I ought not think about it too much.  

I normally might want to try to write about something not very serious, but if you're supposed to "write what you know," then I suppose I ought to choose a topic that I already know a lot about...

But where would the fun in that be?  I would normally write about comic books or something literature related, but I keep getting these disturbing news alerts on my phone. I really should turn those blasted news alerts off because they only inform me about horrible things that I can do nothing about.  But every time I go to delete them, or at the very least silence them, I find that I am ultimately unable to do so because my desire to know about the world proves stronger.  It is good that people are so curious; when we start turning off our curiosity buttons, we stop being able to grow as people.  Self-knowledge is the most important kind of knowledge, but we cannot have that if we don't know the world, too, and our place in the world.

That's why when I saw the news article discussing President Obama and the debt crisis facing the US, I was dumbfounded.  When he was asked if the Social Security checks may not be able to go out next month because the money may not be there, I thought of every time I have had to pay a bill, and the money simply was not there.  It is a terrifying concept, and while I feel for the people who have to sort through that mess, I am more afraid for people like my dad who depend on Social Security.  It seems like the people who are so free with government money, who send it all around the world, don't care all that much for the people who are here.  I suppose if you have never really wanted for the essentials, then the fact that many people depend on Social Security for food, clothing and shelter doesn't really phase or upset you.  I can't help but think that it must be nice to have so much that the day to day concerns of real people aren't a concern after all.  We're not talking about lazy people who don't want to work; we're talking about people who worked all their lives but because of the value that people placed on their jobs, their hard work went unrewarded.  

I worked with a young lady at Macy's who also worked full time at Wal-Mart.  So, she worked one full-time job and one part-time, and she only had one child.  Even though she worked nearly 60 hours a week, she still qualified for government assistance because her income still below the poverty line.  The politicians don't seem to care much about people like her.  She will likely work herself to death, and never have health benefits, retirement benefits, or any other benefit other than a dead-end job.  And when she reaches retirement age, they will tell her there is no Social Security for her.  What did she do that was so wrong that she deserves to live in poverty?  Why is it so easy for politicians to create fear by telling people who live so close to the edge already that they are going over that proverbial edge?

I am not saying that I completely understand this issue, so it seems like I need to do more research.  A while back, the government threatened to shut itself down, which means that no government worker would get paid.  Soldiers are government workers, too, and I can't imagine what they and their families thought, especially those currently serving overseas, when they found out that their hard work might not be rewarded after all.  Even the politicians in some states have come under fire for accepting their paychecks when the state or local governments were threatening to shut down.  Well, I ask you, what exactly are they supposed to do?  If you are not independently wealthy, then you probably work.  People work, not for the sheer joy of it all, but because they need that money to sustain their lives.  Food, clothing and shelter does not come cheaply anymore.  And if all we can afford is food, clothing and shelter with no luxuries whatsoever, what kind of country are we living in?  What kind of country are we living in when the President of the United States tells all of the elderly who depend on Social Security, some so that they can continue living in Assisted Living or nursing homes, that they will not be seeing anymore money--money they themselves paid into the system for decades?

It seems like the word "security" in Social Security is a misnomer; if the government can shut down, then none of us are really safe.