Maybe he wasn't born with a silver spoon in his mouth like you. Maybe he can't find a doctor who will see him for $75.00 (1970's prices). Maybe he'll need tests and lab work (easily over $1,000). MRI's are all the rage now and can run you another $2,000. Colonoscopy ditto. Ongoing care for even a minor affliction can run into thousands a month. Unless he's pulling down $80,000 a year it's unlikely he could afford to treat a heart condition or diabetes or MS or HepC or a failing liver without ending up destitute. Unless, of course, he was CANADIAN.
No need to attack maxiep. He's obviously worked hard to be where he is at. I would venture to guess that he and I have had very similar upbringings and amounts of privilege in our lives. Where I think we obviously differ is we are different people. I simply didn't have the upbringing to succeed as he did. "Hard work" doesn't equal success in today's society if you work hard at something unprofitable. For innumerable factors, he chose his path and I chose mine. You can't help how you were brought up, and in my estimation, he was lucky that his upbringing and psyche allow him to work in the system and be successful. Not everyone is as lucky. And yeah, those chronic conditions I have aren't going away and will only lead to decades of expensive treatment (someone tell me if pre-existing conditions matters here.) With assloads of student debt and, at best, a 30k per year job, it's gonna be an awesome next 40 years.
I like you and all.... But, you're going through all this schooling for at best a 30k per year job? WTF for?
That's hardcore. I definitely respect that. Most of us cowards take their degree, kill their dreams off slowly, and sit in front of a computer wondering if they still have that novel in them as they do data analysis for a faceless corporation. I got money but you can't stuff it in the hole in your soul... ...though the healthcare and iPhones every year are pretty sweet.
The truly lucky ones are the people who don't feel the intense need to be dramatically creative and introspective. Then you are free to work in a good paying job and live your life in a successful manner without feeling like you're lying to yourself. And yeah, I'm looking forward to my first smart phone. Honestly, 30k a year is going to be a massive income upgrade for me. If the job comes with insurance (not looking likely), even better.
I think you have touched on what is really wrong in our country. Harder work does not equal more pay but many people who make more pay believe that they earned it harder than everyone else, regardless of their advantages they have to start with. Our current system does not promote a healthy innovative society, it promotes corporate serfdom. I sold my soul to the corporations and have a relatively comfortable life with lots of stuff, but I feel trapped by the company I work for and tied by my "golden handcuffs". I applaud you for the choices you made and I feel people like you are necessary to keep making our country great, I wonder though if you got married and had a kid or two would you be able to keep on the same path you are on and risk the health of your family? Assuming your future wife is in a similar situation as yourself.
Maybe someday you'll be a big boy and realize that life isn't about just getting to study what you want to study and following your passions on a whim. It sounds great, and the romantics will tell you that's what you should do, but those people shouldn't expect to be subsidized and supported. There were lots of things in grad school that I would have liked to stay and study and get several degrees, but I had to move on.
Maybe a Hoojacks should have spent his time preparing for a career on wall street, as a banker, or a lawyer. We need more of those hard workers to improve our country right?
My career in investment banking and venture capital has created thousands of jobs through supplying capital for new ventures and real estate developments. I'd call that improving our country. What has your career done for us?
This is actually something coming up very soon. My girl and I are getting to the age (30) where having kids needs to happen in the next 5 years if we're going to do it at all. We're both finishing up our masters degrees and need to find decent paying full time employment with benefits sooner than later if we're going to have children. If that happens, then everything I have done was essentially a waste and I will likely spend the rest of my life at a desk job. If it doesn't happen, we can pick up and travel whenever we want and do odd jobs to survive while we work on the things that we are passionate about. It's a conundrum, and I don't have an easy answer. If life isn't about doing what makes you happy, then what is it about? Who said anything about whims? I've been doing this shit since I was 18, when the system told me that I was an adult so now I have to figure out what to do with my life. I made my decision. It's been 10 years and I'm just now getting out of grad school. The romantics? I'm one of them. In what ways am I being subsidized? I don't have food stamps. I'm not on Oregon Health Plan. I'm not on disability. I'm not on welfare. I don't have any government aid. By the time I die, I will have paid off twice as much money as I borrowed to go to school. That money will create jobs (lol no it wont). I am a goddamn boon to the system.
and your penis is bigger than mine also or should we whip them out to compare? Congratulations on your accomplishments in life, you really do deserve health care more than Hoojacks...... Investment bankers can have positive impacts on society, but we also need writers, doctors, scientists, servers, gas station attendants, technicians, researchers, teachers, delivery services, etc many of which money is not the main driving force of their contribution to society. My point with that statement is the vast amounts of money to be made in the financial sector is not equal to the amount of work done in comparison to other jobs, and the people who make those sums of money are not entitled to life any more than a gas station attendant. We need Hoojacks, we also need you and me to all be healthy so we all can contribute to the health of our society in the best ways we can to maintain a diverse and robust economy. We are all on the same team here, think of yourself as the quarterback and us as the practice team members if that helps.
Nah, I have a tiny penis. As for "deserving" health care, you pretend that it's a right. It's not. For the record, I've been an adjunct professor, a researcher, a landscaper, volunteered at least two days a month for Habitat for Humanity for the past two decades (when I've lived in the States), and supplied enough tax receipts to fund many of the jobs you claim are indispensable. I would have loved to have followed my dreams, but in the end I made the choice for financial security. Now you tell me that my lifetime of sacrifice entitles me to a life no better than those that didn't work as hard or did what they pleased? Bullshit. As for how I think of myself, I played the lines in HS. In college I moved to safety. My job is to do the heavy lifting and protect the middle. It's the dreamers that get the glory; my ilk is pilloried.
For every dreamer that achieves glory, there are 100 who never did. The wealthy in this country are the ones who are revered.
