Maybe I am the sucker? I have been employed and working since I was sixteen years old. My mother made me get a job at sixteen and made me pay for my own clothes and my gasoline if I wanted to drive. My parents instilled in me very early a good, strong work ethic and the notion that nothing in life is free and that hard work and dedication pay off. For all of my life I have thought that I was doing the right thing. Working hard, having a good work ethic and doing my best to provide for my family. Now I am starting to re-evaluate everything that I thought that I knew. I am starting to ask myself, why I am working so hard? When I heard the quote from Congressman Keith Ellison (D-MN) that the job losses and reduction in hours due to Obamacare will be a good thing because American’s work too much anyway, this got me thinking. What am I doing? Why have I been working so hard for the last thirty-four years? What do I have to show for it? I am fifty years old, with retirement merely a pipe dream, no savings to speak of and a house that needs repairs but no money to repair it. Our newest vehicle is a 2003 that needs a new transmission and my furniture all needs to be replaced. I basically live pay check to pay check. I have two kids in college, who had to take student loans to pay for every penny of tuition, while I struggled to scrape together the funds to purchase their textbooks that cost hundreds of dollars. I think that maybe my hard work and my dedication to paying my own way may have been a severe mistake. What would my life be like if I had chosen to not be so responsible? First, instead of getting married I should have chosen to just have my children out of wedlock. Essentially I would have saved thousands and thousands of dollars over the years because I would have owed essentially no income tax. Most likely I would have received a large refund check, more than the tax I actually paid, wow what a deal! What was I thinking? Who needs a husband? Shacking up would have been far more profitable. Second, I would have qualified for Section 8 housing, assistance on my electric bill (LIEAP), food stamps (SNAP), W.I.C., clothing vouchers, Medicaid, WV CHIP, cell phones and my children would have received grants for college instead of student loans. The thousands of dollars that I spent on child care would have been saved too because I would have qualified for the Head Start program. My children would have received free breakfast and lunch at school and I would have received food in the summer time too using the WV Summer Food Service. Oh and I could have my residence weatherized under the WV Weatherization Assistance Program, who knew? Thirdly, this would have freed up a huge portion of my income and I could have afforded to have a car payment for a new vehicle because my housing, my food and my medical insurance would all be free and I could have turned in my old vehicles under the “cash for clunkers” program. Wow, another great deal! Lastly I could have saved thousands of hours that I spent working and spent them at home instead. Because in order to maintain all of the benefits that I would have been entitled to, I couldn’t work too much or make too much money. Therefore I would have been at home more and spent more time with my children. To think, thanks to Obamacare I could have made dinner at home more often too. So am I the sucker? Paying my own way? What was I thinking?
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 12:32:52 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015