1.9.99
Goodness, the internet is a political place, isn't it? It seems that most of the online journals that I read currently are embroiled in a long discussion over $$$. Who's got it, who aint, who wants it, and who never had it to start with.
I have looked at four sides of this coin, and have come to one conclusion. You all are sooo full of shit! (no, just kidding.) There are valid points to be made from all angles. We all have problems, Rich people have them; poor folks like me have them too (more on that depressing topic later.) What needs to be brought into the open is a forum for expressing our various difficulties without flaming or slinging mud toward the Canadian/US Border. (you guys slay me...really!)
This needs to happen AFTER I express my views. I am the lord of my temporal universe, and like I keep saying, there is a nifty back button up there.
Why? I just can't take it anymore. I have attempted to sit down and shut up like a good little boy, but this discussion has brought me to the breaking point. (I digress. I have not mentioned names, nor will I. Figure it out from the subtext, and cruise around looking at people's journals.) I am really, really tired of spoiled rich kids whining all over the fucking place. I am surrounded by them in my personal life, and I am finding them place by place on the Internet. To these folks, I say "Get off your asses and fix it. Stop your fucking whining and do it." (Ooh, such language!)
Before I continue further, I need to stop and explain my situation. I am employed in the medical profession, by a not for profit agency. My job has attached to it a high level of responsibility, and I would say a moderate stress level. From a corporate standpoint, the place is really screwed. The upper echelons support supervisors, and rarely individual employees. Ineffective management abounds, and for this they are amply rewarded.
For putting up with all of this shit last year, I was given about $31k. No, I am well above the poverty level, and in a usual circumstance, I would be doing okay. However, I am not in a "usual circumstance." I live in the most expensive city in the United States. (Honolulu edged out San Francisco last year. New York pales in 3rd. place.) As such, this decent salary doesn't go far. I have no savings, my money is tightly budgeted, and I am literally living from paycheck to paycheck. It is a mildly frustrating situation, to say the least. However, the payback from all of this frugality will come in approximately five years, when my debt load will be 0. That's the goal, at least.
RR is engaged in the perilous film industry. When he works, the money is good. Real good. Sad part is, the work is seldom and there are long pauses between his employment. Still, he managed to make a good chunk of money (I'll not say how much, as I do not have permission to divulge his income, but it is a lot.) last year, so in all, we are doing pretty well despite it all. Our combined income is in the 6 digits.
Yet, we manage to just scrape by. That's the down side of living in the high rent district of these United States. That's another thing, we don't live in a snazzy neighbourhood like Manoa or Kahala, or Kaimuki. We are in Kalihi. It's a downtrodden dumping ground for Filipino immigrants, some of who are actually here legally. The squalour that these people endure amazes me, having been reared by the American Standard. It is not uncommon for five or six families (we are talking twenty or so people here) living in a single family dwelling. What amazes me more is the fact that no matter how shitty their existence here, it is far better than they could ever hope for in the Philippines.
Neither RR nor I come from moneyed backgrounds. Speaking for myself, we were far from rolling in dough. My father decided that he needed to dump my mother after 10 years of marital hell, leaving her high and dry with a house, 2 kids, a car and not a hell of a lot else. Still yet, she provided for us famously. I managed to scrape together a decent education, and I am quite pleased with the way that I turned out. My mother is also happy, and I'm not sure what my father thinks, nor do I particularly care.
College years were spent in literal squalour. I was unable to afford to live in the dormitories with full board, and took rooms at a residence hotel downtown in Moscow, sharing with then bf, Neil. Primarily, subsistence was ramen noodles and whatever was cheap. A summer I lived in my car buzzing up and down the Oregon/Washington coast. I pretended that I was writing the great american novel, and that it was bohemian, but it was really because I didn't have anywhere to go. That's untrue also. I just didn't want to go anywhere. It was a point in my life when I wanted to be alone, and to just think about life and its truest meaning. I pounded out several hundred pages about a fictional creature I called "The Blonde Stud" who I met in a restroom near Astoria, Washington. It was a neat time in my life, when I learned to dumpster dive and subsist on catsup.
But the point is this. $100 is still a lot of money to me. I've never lost sight of the fact that there are a hell of a lot of people that think the way that I do. For whatever reason, I always look at people who come from moneyed backgrounds with a jaundiced eye. My belief is that if you really didn't suffer and work towards something, you will never enjoy truly the fruits of your labour.
People who have money have a different mindset from those of us who haven't. They whine. Poor people whine too, but there is nothing more irritating than the bawling of a spoiled rich kid, who has never had to really work, who has yet to earn anything. Initiative is a lost concept. If there is something that you really, truly want, then just quit whining about wanting it, and do it. It's really that easy. You want to really help people? Go to the scuzzy part of downtown and work for "The Agencies." Do it at minimum wage, or better yet, volunteer. Just do it, regardless of what people will think of you, regardless of how funny people there smell. It is done for the sake of pure altruism; the only direct benefit that you obtain is the fact that you've helped your fellow man, and because of that, you feel pretty damn good.
Honestly, though, I have only known of a couple of people who were/are rich who can really appreciate this idea. The sad fact is that in America, if you aint got $$$$ you aint got shit. After watching eight years of Ronald Reaganomics, I am absolutely convinced ot that fact. This is the country that introduced the middle class to the world earlier in this century. To some extent, the middle class has come to some economic power, but it is not nearly enough, and certainly not representative of the number of people in that caste. You want a decent, good enough to scrape by education, you can have it as a middle class person. However, if you want a world class, head bustin education, you have to lay out some serious bucks. In an effort to make sure that the great institutions of the world don't miss someone who is truly capable of changing the world, a limited number of scholarships are given to "round out" the student body.
Jeez, I sound like such a commie. You know, I think that every smart kid should go to Punahou and then Harvard, regardless of how much they are able to pay. I think that every remarkably average rich kid should go to Farrington then UH, the home of the mediocre student.
I can justify that remark. The University of Hawaii is a state run institution. As such, it receives public funding to support its operation. I pay my taxes, so I can be critical of how the joint is run. The football team is dead last. In fact, this year they set a new record for the worst season ever. What did they feel a need to do? Fire the coach, of course. Pay off the $250,000 remaining in his contract, and get a new guy in, on contract, and pay him twice what you paid the old guy. The entire process took exactly 10 days.
University of Hawaii is also the home of a medical school, and a school of public health. Both of these departments have been without deans for more than two years. I am amazed that it takes less than 2 weeks to decide to fire, recruit, and sign up a new coach for the worst football team in the history of collegiate athletics, but somehow they can't find some simpleton to run the medical school in less than 3 years.
That's because it is all about money. It is a well known fact that the quality of your education is absolutely contingent on the skill of your football team. Hell, look at the MIT team....oh, they don't have a team? Oops! Must not be much of a school.
I have looked at four sides of this coin, and have come to one conclusion. You all are sooo full of shit! (no, just kidding.) There are valid points to be made from all angles. We all have problems, Rich people have them; poor folks like me have them too (more on that depressing topic later.) What needs to be brought into the open is a forum for expressing our various difficulties without flaming or slinging mud toward the Canadian/US Border. (you guys slay me...really!)
This needs to happen AFTER I express my views. I am the lord of my temporal universe, and like I keep saying, there is a nifty back button up there.
Why? I just can't take it anymore. I have attempted to sit down and shut up like a good little boy, but this discussion has brought me to the breaking point. (I digress. I have not mentioned names, nor will I. Figure it out from the subtext, and cruise around looking at people's journals.) I am really, really tired of spoiled rich kids whining all over the fucking place. I am surrounded by them in my personal life, and I am finding them place by place on the Internet. To these folks, I say "Get off your asses and fix it. Stop your fucking whining and do it." (Ooh, such language!)
Before I continue further, I need to stop and explain my situation. I am employed in the medical profession, by a not for profit agency. My job has attached to it a high level of responsibility, and I would say a moderate stress level. From a corporate standpoint, the place is really screwed. The upper echelons support supervisors, and rarely individual employees. Ineffective management abounds, and for this they are amply rewarded.
For putting up with all of this shit last year, I was given about $31k. No, I am well above the poverty level, and in a usual circumstance, I would be doing okay. However, I am not in a "usual circumstance." I live in the most expensive city in the United States. (Honolulu edged out San Francisco last year. New York pales in 3rd. place.) As such, this decent salary doesn't go far. I have no savings, my money is tightly budgeted, and I am literally living from paycheck to paycheck. It is a mildly frustrating situation, to say the least. However, the payback from all of this frugality will come in approximately five years, when my debt load will be 0. That's the goal, at least.
RR is engaged in the perilous film industry. When he works, the money is good. Real good. Sad part is, the work is seldom and there are long pauses between his employment. Still, he managed to make a good chunk of money (I'll not say how much, as I do not have permission to divulge his income, but it is a lot.) last year, so in all, we are doing pretty well despite it all. Our combined income is in the 6 digits.
Yet, we manage to just scrape by. That's the down side of living in the high rent district of these United States. That's another thing, we don't live in a snazzy neighbourhood like Manoa or Kahala, or Kaimuki. We are in Kalihi. It's a downtrodden dumping ground for Filipino immigrants, some of who are actually here legally. The squalour that these people endure amazes me, having been reared by the American Standard. It is not uncommon for five or six families (we are talking twenty or so people here) living in a single family dwelling. What amazes me more is the fact that no matter how shitty their existence here, it is far better than they could ever hope for in the Philippines.
Neither RR nor I come from moneyed backgrounds. Speaking for myself, we were far from rolling in dough. My father decided that he needed to dump my mother after 10 years of marital hell, leaving her high and dry with a house, 2 kids, a car and not a hell of a lot else. Still yet, she provided for us famously. I managed to scrape together a decent education, and I am quite pleased with the way that I turned out. My mother is also happy, and I'm not sure what my father thinks, nor do I particularly care.
College years were spent in literal squalour. I was unable to afford to live in the dormitories with full board, and took rooms at a residence hotel downtown in Moscow, sharing with then bf, Neil. Primarily, subsistence was ramen noodles and whatever was cheap. A summer I lived in my car buzzing up and down the Oregon/Washington coast. I pretended that I was writing the great american novel, and that it was bohemian, but it was really because I didn't have anywhere to go. That's untrue also. I just didn't want to go anywhere. It was a point in my life when I wanted to be alone, and to just think about life and its truest meaning. I pounded out several hundred pages about a fictional creature I called "The Blonde Stud" who I met in a restroom near Astoria, Washington. It was a neat time in my life, when I learned to dumpster dive and subsist on catsup.
But the point is this. $100 is still a lot of money to me. I've never lost sight of the fact that there are a hell of a lot of people that think the way that I do. For whatever reason, I always look at people who come from moneyed backgrounds with a jaundiced eye. My belief is that if you really didn't suffer and work towards something, you will never enjoy truly the fruits of your labour.
People who have money have a different mindset from those of us who haven't. They whine. Poor people whine too, but there is nothing more irritating than the bawling of a spoiled rich kid, who has never had to really work, who has yet to earn anything. Initiative is a lost concept. If there is something that you really, truly want, then just quit whining about wanting it, and do it. It's really that easy. You want to really help people? Go to the scuzzy part of downtown and work for "The Agencies." Do it at minimum wage, or better yet, volunteer. Just do it, regardless of what people will think of you, regardless of how funny people there smell. It is done for the sake of pure altruism; the only direct benefit that you obtain is the fact that you've helped your fellow man, and because of that, you feel pretty damn good.
Honestly, though, I have only known of a couple of people who were/are rich who can really appreciate this idea. The sad fact is that in America, if you aint got $$$$ you aint got shit. After watching eight years of Ronald Reaganomics, I am absolutely convinced ot that fact. This is the country that introduced the middle class to the world earlier in this century. To some extent, the middle class has come to some economic power, but it is not nearly enough, and certainly not representative of the number of people in that caste. You want a decent, good enough to scrape by education, you can have it as a middle class person. However, if you want a world class, head bustin education, you have to lay out some serious bucks. In an effort to make sure that the great institutions of the world don't miss someone who is truly capable of changing the world, a limited number of scholarships are given to "round out" the student body.
Jeez, I sound like such a commie. You know, I think that every smart kid should go to Punahou and then Harvard, regardless of how much they are able to pay. I think that every remarkably average rich kid should go to Farrington then UH, the home of the mediocre student.
I can justify that remark. The University of Hawaii is a state run institution. As such, it receives public funding to support its operation. I pay my taxes, so I can be critical of how the joint is run. The football team is dead last. In fact, this year they set a new record for the worst season ever. What did they feel a need to do? Fire the coach, of course. Pay off the $250,000 remaining in his contract, and get a new guy in, on contract, and pay him twice what you paid the old guy. The entire process took exactly 10 days.
University of Hawaii is also the home of a medical school, and a school of public health. Both of these departments have been without deans for more than two years. I am amazed that it takes less than 2 weeks to decide to fire, recruit, and sign up a new coach for the worst football team in the history of collegiate athletics, but somehow they can't find some simpleton to run the medical school in less than 3 years.
That's because it is all about money. It is a well known fact that the quality of your education is absolutely contingent on the skill of your football team. Hell, look at the MIT team....oh, they don't have a team? Oops! Must not be much of a school.
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