June 08, 2006

People responding to perverse incentives by becoming perverse? Gee, what a surprise!

But it's no just here in the U.S. of A. The Swedes are getting in on the act too.

It all depends on your moral compass.

Wow, that just hit a major nerve with me.

These are the very same people that chastise me for living within my means or harp, "Y'all work too MUCH!!"

1. I live in a trailer.

2. I drive a 12-year-old car.

3. I recently bought a sweet truck that is 5 years old with 80,000 miles on it and cobwebs in the engine from a buy-here-pay-here joint. It wasn't because I couldn't go to a dealership, but those fuckers charge out the wazoo for trucks that are far less valuable. I found this out by actually RESEARCHING and not falling for the new car smell and vanity bullshit.

4. My kids get second-hand clothes and sometimes I buy them at Dollar General instead of the mall. I'm a mean-ass mom, I guess.

I have virtually no credit card debt. My house note and 1 acre of land with a horse and a llama, nicely landscaped, and in the country carries a house note that most would drool over. I have a coffee can buried somewhere in the back with a lot of money located within. Call me backwoods or retarded, but based on your last post about mutual funds, I think I am pretty damn smart.

Fuck 'em....fuck 'em all.

Yep.
I know several people like that, too.

Sonsabitches get away with that and everything else they do, too.
People who scam like that always have more than one scam going.

Every once in a while, when shit's got me backed up to the wall, I think about being like that, doing that shit, but...
I just can't.
I don't have it in me to lie, cheat and steal my way to such false "sucess".

I wonder if it's something wrong with me for a coupla minutes, but, then I realize what a shitheel I'd have to become, how low I'd hafta go and that repels me, instantly.

Then, I go back to treading the shit so deep that it threatens to overtake my hose-holes or digging in that dry sand pit that seems to fill up faster than you can dig it out or trying to "swim" outta the quicksand, whichever metaphore makes the desperation the clearest.

Still, no matter how bad it may be, it's not as bad as being that kinda scam-assed fucknozzle.

I've never taken a dime from our government and hopefully never will... Unfortunately, our government has taken plenty of dimes from me.

I think 'The Ant and the Grasshopper' quit being told to kids right about the time LBJ rolled out the "Great" Society. Seems to have been updated with 'The Fool and the Chigger'.

I feel ya on all of your thoughts.

I'm a lawyer, and I defend employers in workers' comp claims. By "defend" I mean that I try to work out as small a settlement as I possibly can. There's simply no way for an employer to win one of those. In any sane world, I could've gone to court on a recent case I settled for $68K and gotten the idiot moocher kicked in the ass out of the courtroom door.

But not in our current entitlement society.

My missus worked for the state Dept. of Human Services for about 3+ years recently (until she quit in a fury over the idiocy of the place) and came home daily with stories about the system being milked for all it's worth. She was an "employment counselor" who tried to help direct the unemployed into the work force.

The state provides child care, education grants, job placement services, etc., to allow folks to do just that.

The most common refrain from these folks about the kind of job they wanted was "Something that pays $10-12 per hour, 40 hours, no weekends, no late nights."

Well, that's all well and good, if you have any useful skills or education. If you have those things, you can find that work. However, if you drop out of school in the 9th grade to pop out your second baby, have no skills or education beyond working the welfare system, you don't exactly offer much to employers.

When you establish a society that encourages laziness and slackassedness, that's what you get.

People are lemmings. They'll follow whatever plan someone "in charge" will provide to them.

If you cut out all of the BS social engineering projects, you won't have masses of starving people lining the streets. It's amazing what hunger and a need for shelter will do for folks.

Phew. You lit a fire back under me again. I needed that. Thanks.

TANSTAAFL!

I guess I'm an idiot too, Rob.

I've worked all my damn life. My parents were farmers and I can't remember when I (and the whole family) didn't work and work hard. I raised three sons (yes, ONE father for all of them - my then husband) with no help from anyone - except my parents who did babysit when one of the boys was sick or I had to work on weekends. Worked my ass off with two and sometimes three jobs - while my ex-husband filed (and eventually GOT SSD) and there ain't a damn thing wrong with him - except maybe he's fucked up in the head. I've never accepted a hand-out from anyone and have never thought I needed one.

My boys are grown now - except for my oldest, who died in an accident five years ago - and they know the value of a dollar. They're good kids and they work their asses off too. We're all obviously idiots.

Love your writing, Rob. I've been reading for a long time but haven't commented - don't know why. You keep on keeping on. In my book, you're one of the few good guys with his head screwed on straight.

This is a practice that is passed down through generation. They learn early that if you ever work two days in a row you're screwed. The government is good at tracking stuff like that, but they can't find 12 million criminals wandering the streets, cutting their grass and serving them their Big Mac's.

It is genetic. Simple as that.

I guess we're in the same boat. I've had at least one job, sometime 3 since 1973.

What amazes me is that the US Americans taht work can support the rest of the lazy slobs in the country, a couple of wars, and then supply aid to the rest of the USA hating world.

It boggles my mind to think how much better off we'd be without all the leeches....

We can get PAID for doing nothing? *grumbles about always being the last to know*