I FINALLY GOT A JOB.
Yeah, it's a 6 month contract "with a possibility to hire". Sure, I took a paycut of about $5 an hour.
BUT I HAVE A JOB.
And this brought something to my attention.
When you lose your job and get on unemployment, you go through quite the gamut of emotions. Was it something you did? Was it just a crappy twist of fate? Hey, I don't have to sit in traffic anymore and I can sleep in tomorrow and I don't have to deal with that horrendous manager I can't stand!
I'll admit, for the first few weeks, it was nice to spend the time home with my kids, not dealing with users who think their computer is out to get them, and still collecting ... well, not MUCH money, but enough to get by.
Then as June rolled into July, and summer rolled into autumn, and then the first snows fell and Thanksgiving passed, I grew more and more pessimistic, more and more irritated, more and more angry at the fact that I didn't do a goddamn thing wrong, and yet I lost my job. I felt like I was useless to my family, like I'd failed as an adult.
Today, I found out I got the job I'd applied for, despite the purple hair, tattoos, and nose piercing. (Or maybe it was because of those awesome things. That's what I'm telling myself. :D )
Let me tell you, I haven't felt so awesome about myself in a LONG time. I have a job! I'm contributing to society! I'm bringing in money that will help ease my family's financial issues!
And I realized something.
THAT is what the American people want. Yes, unemployment benefits are nice (and in a lot of cases, absolutely necessary). But other than that short time where you realize you don't have to sit in traffic anymore, people don't want to just sit on their duffs and collect a check. They want to WORK. They want to be PRODUCTIVE (preferably for a living, reasonable wage). They want our government to get off its collective ass and actually do something that REALLY CREATES JOBS, not just puts more cash into the pockets of people who already have so much that they probably won't notice any more.
So hey, American government, here's a suggestion:
GO FUCKING CREATE JOBS. STOP LETTING COMPANIES SEND THEM OVERSEAS. ACTUALLY DO SOMETHING TO HELP THE COUNTRY, NOT HUGE CORPORATIONS. Last I checked, your oath of office didn't have anything about corporations in it.
This means CLOSING TAX LOOPHOLES FOR COMPANIES THAT SHIP OUR JOBS AWAY.
This means doing something about the fact that PROFITS GO UP AND WORKERS STILL GET LAID OFF.
This means ACTUALLY REPRESENTING YOUR CONSTITUENTS, NOT JUST YOUR LEASH-HOLDERS.
You go on about how you "don't want to give handouts" when WE DON'T WANT HANDOUTS. WE WANT JOBS. Your dumb-ass tax cut nonsense doesn't create jobs. DEMAND creates jobs, and people scraping by on unemployment aren't gonna run out to RC Willey to buy a huge TV, like they might IF THEY WERE WORKING.
Just a thought.