State of the Union (for the Poor)

My early years before I entered the world of adulthood were filled with stories of the American dream. But alas, that’s exactly what they were; Stories, Tall Tales, Fictions to soon be discovered.

I always knew we weren’t ‘Rich’. But my parents managed to keep me fed and a roof over my head. They did O.K. We lived in a middle class neighborhood for 8 to 10 years, so everything wasn’t too bad. Little did I know just exactly how far in debt my parents really were? At any given moment the smallest catastrophe could have sent them reeling into bankruptcy.

I did OK in school – I was a ‘C’ student, not because I had any learning problems, I was actually in some advanced art and math classes. I was a ‘C’ student because my parents were hammered with the day-to-day stress of trying to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads. I was a ‘C’ student because nobody had any idea that the world or at least the US was going to be driven by unforgiving corporate greed and some of the most corrupt government officials and policies ever imagined.

I quit school in my senior year. Yeah stupid move – there were some issues with the Dean being a moron, he could have very well found some other way to resolve an issue other than failing me at the end of the first semester – So my battle with absolute idiots began before I even left high school.

While I continued to work on my ‘Rock Star’ future, I took up carpentry as a means of being a productive citizen.

This is where the so called ‘American Dream’ has been dismantled and torn asunder.

You hear stories of ‘Work Hard’ and you will be rewarded – BULLSH**. I stuck with carpentry for 15 years. I “WAS” very skilled in my chosen trade, I even managed to work my way up “lead carpenter” and “foreman” a couple times. But amazingly enough, I was never able to make enough money to keep up with the bare necessities needed for survival. All my years of hard work and perseverance my family always relied on public assistance and charities.

I dealt with employers that offered me a raise if I signed insurance waivers and moved to 1099s (the worst thing ever). I dealt with employers going bankrupt and not paying me. I dealt with spending entire tax refunds to re-instate my drivers’ license and pay exorbitant insurance fines (nothing more than legalized racketeering in my book).

I tried to get an SBA loan once to start my own business – That was a joke, the bank said I had one of the best proposals they had ever seen (my advanced high school math skills paid off) – but the bank wouldn’t even submit my proposal to the SBA because not only are carpenters the highest rated “credit Risk”, but I didn’t have any collateral.

So I continued to spend every dollar I could muster to pay for my almost unaffordable car insurance while working for employers who would outright rig paychecks - refuse to honor verbal agreements and just about every other abhorrent behavior that contractors use to screw their workforce. It’s no different from corporate theft really, and when poor broke carpenters have to rely on public assistance programs to pay the bills, there no way we could even imagine the luxury of hiring a lawyer to fight the battle. So we just move on to the next ‘dirty’ contractor who was lucky enough somehow to get his business started.

Look, I know the simple fact that we can’t all be doctors and lawyers and such – but there has to be more to the ‘American Dream’ than wishing we had born with a ‘Silver Spoon’ in our mouths, or even worse yet – waiting diligently for some older family member to ‘DIE’ so we can reap the rewards of some small fortune that they may have.

I have re-educated myself. I have a G.E.D, I even have an Associates degree, I even have several ‘Certifications’ proving that I can at least pass a test.

Once again I got screwed believing in the ‘American Dream’. During my families’ first battle with being Homeless, I took advantage of every re-education and re-training program I could. I thought that I could ‘Work’ my way up a more respectable ladder. After all, carpenters – the people that put roofs over our heads are considered scourge of the earth – so my being in technology has got to be a better career choice right?

WRONG! It seems that the ‘so called’ shortage of technology workers in this country is another farce created by the countries financial institutions in an effort to generate even more debt for the poor people on this country that just want to make their lives better. After all, If I owned a corporation and my government gave me a tax break for sending all my work to another country – I suppose I could the allure of not having to pay an American a decent wage while getting rewarded for it.

After all my efforts and hard work and thinking I even had a snowballs chance in hell, I couldn’t even get a Job in the Technology industry because I am just a stupid carpenter who doesn’t have any experience (even though I graduated with a 3.9 GPA and have industry certifications and generated another $20,000 in debt for myself – WHOOPEE)

I had to resort back to carpentry to try to survive (after having a back surgery) and now I have even more problems. After resorting back to the career that caused me so many years of pain and a surgery, it seems that wasn’t the wisest of choices either – now I have brought myself even more pain and suffering. Not only did trying once again to provide for my family cause me to work for yet another ‘Less than Desirable’ employer, but now I have had to file for disability.

How’s that for the ‘American Dream’? I thought that since I had done such a great service to my country (OK, so I wasn’t a soldier in the sense of being in the military, but I spent the better part of my life being a soldier of the workforce – building and repairing the structures that keep roofs over our nations heads) that I could at least be rewarded in some small way by at least getting disability. Yes, that was my ‘American Dream’, to grow up and file for disability.

It seems that even our countries social programs are under attack – I have received some of the most berating and abhorrent treatment from the Division of Health and Human Services – I received some of the worst treatment ever from our countries social services.

Not only do I have to fight for my right to be considered disabled and receive some form of help from my government – but I have all but given up on even considering using the Division of Health for help because their treatment of people needing help is so abhorrent (probably due to the fact that the current administration is more concerned with ‘Liberating” Iraqi oil fields than with caring for it’s own citizens).

I have a wife, I have children. My entire life has been spent chasing the ‘So Called American Dream’. I can see no way that we call ourselves the most ‘Powerful Nation’ on earth. If we as a country cannot even liberate our own poor and homeless, how can we ever expect to do the same for others.

Our nation is driven by corporate greed and a corrupt government – we need HELP.

When the American people are ‘enslaved’ into debt by the countries financial institutions and our government is run by the corporations who pay for the laws they want or need – we are the ‘Weakest Nation’ on the planet.