I am sure you are proud of your father and rightfully so. That's how I felt and my full time job was finding another one......which I did within 6 months of being laid off which in early 2009 was pretty good. I too found one at half the pay.....and that has been a lot of pride to swallow. But the reality was and still is that a job like I had is not to be found. Hence.....I rent not own and I look to work until they won't let me anymore.
Actually it's a foot loose and free way to go after spending 28 years worrying about the roof, the basement flooding, the 60 year old sewer pipe crock collapsing, the snow backing up on the roof and ruining the inside wall by the fireplace, the mice, the carpenter ants, the gutters filling with leaves, trying to cut the grass and not have it set off my allergies ferociously, the 14 inches of wet heavy snow in the driveway etc.....etc....etc.... Man....that home ownership in Michigan was fun stuff!!
As, I believe, would have his entire generation. The generation of public entitlements has had very serious consequences to the health and strength of our nation. Whatever happened to self-determination and rugged individualism? When did the responsibility for taking care of oneself become a concern of the state? When did providing for the family become the responsibility of the central government? The impacts have led us to the point that the IMF is expressing concern and comparing us unfavorably with the UK, Japan and the European social democracies for crissakes! The freakin' IMF.....is this a f$#king joke or just a bad dream? Wake up people......this is absurd.
Unemployment doesn't pay the bills either......and neither does scrubbing toilets for anyone who had and lost a real job.......only real jobs pay the bills for those that lost them. So what to do to eliminate that 11 million person gap between people that are "officially" unemployed and the number of job openings? Not to mention as I say all of those "working".......but nowhere near at jobs with pay levels that actually pay the bills. So far neither party has come up with the answers we need.
This is the essence of our greatest philosophical differences...... I don't believe it is the responsibility of the either party to come up with the answers we need......that's our responsibility. It is up to each of us individually to "come up with the answers we need" to provide for our families. Therein lies one of the great shames of our generation and has led a great nation down the path to it's demise if unchecked .....we have led a generation to believe that it's somebody else's fault and therefore their responsibility to find solutions and provide for them......no. No it's not......
I guess we do have this major difference in beliefs then. I believe in the human spirit.......and especially the American spirit and in the willingness....no the desire that fulfills their very being.... of most Americans to work hard and earn a living. That's my belief anyway.