OK Bobby, I'll have a couple shots. I know you can take it since you are from NYC.
So instead of taking #$%* jobs that don't have health benefits, and then whining about it and trying to extort the benefits from the middle class, why not simply insist on getting benefits from your employer? I for one, would never accept a job as an employee unless it had medical benefits. Why can I be so smug about that, you ask? Because I worked hard to get qualified enough to make demands of my potential employers. What is this invisible hand that keeps the non-"shiftless-layabouts" from picking up a damned textbook and improving themselves? I utilized the largely taxpayer-funded education system to better myself, plus I paid the minimal tuition required to attend. Then I actually expended the energy to STUDY HARD so I could LEARN SOMETHING and graduate.
Your statement that employers don't offer health insurance due to "greed" is BS as well. Employers offer the salary and benefits that are required in order to get the position filled. If there are dumbasses around who are willing to work without getting benefits, then there is no reason why an employer should offer benefits. If you don't like it, then ask your boss for benefits. If he doesn't give them to you, then either improve yourself so you can get a better job, or put your loser tail between your legs and keep on being an unqualified, uneducated sucker.
If an employer can't afford benefits, then they can't afford to waste my time working for them. They can't afford me.
Should we encourage people to screw themselves by NOT getting better qualifications and seeking better employment? Obviously not.
Is it the WORKING-JOE TAXPAYER'S FAULT that the dumbass landscaper CHOSE to have 3 kids when he couldn't even afford to pay attention? That's just plain stupid, and there's no reason in the world why I should have to pick up the slack for stupid. I carefully avoided having children (and getting married) until I was in my 30's and I could afford to raise them properly, like any responsible person should.
Why should the very act of me doing smart things make me responsible for somebody else doing stupid things?
How is that fair in your mind? In what ridiculous fantasy land is that fair?
You bet I can take it, and I can dish it out pretty good too. However, you I believe are not speaking about me personally. I grew up in a very deprived area known as Scarsdale NY, it was really tough on those mean streets. I have two degrees so I too was able to eek my way through College, one private and the other a SUNY School. I grew up well, actually very well and I have no guilt from having done so.
However, I know through personal interactions many who did not have it so good. I worked for 30 years for the largest IT company in the world and enjoyed excellent Medical benefits, and I still have pretty good benefits and a pension as a retiree. In fact, I currently work for an employer that does offer benefits, but I do not use them, since I have better retiree benefits.
OK, I have a conscience, it may be my biggest failing. I had a simple Kidney Stone in the 1970's and I was taken to a very nice private Hospital and had a nice private room. I had two Doctors looking after my welfare and a few hot Nurses. I was laying there watching PBS Channel 13 in NY.
It was a documentary about NYC Hospitals. They showed people who could not even afford the bus fare to get free care, OK they were Welfare clients Ed, so what happens to them is of no concern to people such as us - we just have to suffer them.
Well a it showed a nice middle class working man was brought in with chest pains. The Doctors did not have the $6.00 set of leads to hook up to the external pacemaker, so the man died onscreen right before my eyes. The Doctors were cursing as they vainly tried to save him and jury rig some other leads. I got mad Ed, I really did. Here I am with a simple Kidney stone and two top Doctors, and this poor pr1ck died for $6.00.
Ed, you have talents you were given and you figured out how to capitalize on them. While the Constitution says we are created equal, we aren't. Some people do not have the ability to go to College. My Mother had to pass on a full scholarship to Hunter College since she had to help support her parents after my Grandfather became disabled. Maybe many people are not so scary talented they can be so choosy about where they work, and have to take what honest work they can find.
Corporate greed is real. In Florida a very large number of very large stores only hire part time workers to avoid paying benefits, this includes the Managers. Other Companies are hiring mostly contractors for the same reason, don't believe it, just browse Dice.com where highly trained professionals are being offered contact positions with no benefits.
Now we have Citicorp about to lay off 45,000 people, who will lose their benefits. They too will take what work they can get to put food on the table.They are dumb since they picked the wrong employer, so they are now gonna get what they deserve. Oh my God, they may also have children so they are doubly dumb. These poor souls have no safety net.
On your utility bills in NY there is an MTA surcharge. The MTA employees do not pay for medical benefits while they are working or retired. I suggest you disconnect your phones and electrical service to avoid adding to this Union socialized welfare system. Also do not take the Subway, Bus, or cross a Bridge for the same reason.
Ed, you are probably and OK guy and I sense we would get along in person, but you have on several occasions displayed this
I got mine the hard way syndrome. I have observed in others who feel themselves somehow above others forgrtting where they came from. Maybe your passion just gives that impression.
I have been a Republican since 1971, done some awful things on the behalf of my Country and am generally conservative. I just have this thing called a conscience that tells me that some things are just not right.
