The bitter DUmmy ThomWV, fingering his necklace of human teeth, reflects on a failed life. He has never, and will never, match the success of his father, who was a simple, hard-working, common man, providing for his family through hard work as a power plant employee. ThomWV, being a lifelong DUmmy, has never been able to provide adequately for his family, nor for his retirement. He is convinced his failure is the fault of America:
ThomWV (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-23-09 09:26 PM
Original message
I want to just talk
My father was born not long after the first world war, which made him a teenager when the Great Depression hit. He was one of a half dozen surviving children of a man who worked on gas wells until (1930) he was injured in an explosion and then his wife left him. They had nothing. Then came the Second World War. His war, in the Pacific, was indeed hell.
After the war he became part of the great growing America - and he lived the american dream. He was a staunch Republican, he supported the war I fought in even after I came home and told him that it was wrong.
The old man used to read magazines, lots and lots of magazines. He read Life Magazine, and True Magazine, and Popular Mechanics, and of course the Reader's Digest; he even got their condensed books on a monthly basis. These were the good times and he had damned well earned them.
The old man, who worked at a power plant, always belonged to a union. I too have been a life-long Union member and just wanted to mention it - with pride. The union treated him well. He earned wages unheard of in his younger days. He got paid days off if he was sick, he even got paid vacation.
The vacation was the thing. You see that was the one promise that was constantly made to my father and the rest of the working men and women of his generation. They were promised leisure. That may not sound like much to you and me but to a generation that had to scramble every minute of their life just to eat it was no small thing at all.
And now I look back, with the old man no long in the grave, and I wonder what happened to all that leisure time he worked so hard for so very many years to earn? Where is it now? My wife and I, both now retired, had to both work to keep up a household that roughly equaled what my father was able to support alone. We worked more hours than he did and our jobs were in greater peril from outside competition and unfavorable national policy. Oh, my bosses made a lot more than my father's bosses and at the top of the companies we each worked for there was simply no comparison in compensation. The leisure his generation and then mine earned (and I should have shared in and passed on to my son) was stolen from him and turned into cash by the very top levels of management in the very companies we built.
Ask any Republican and they will tell you we are now in an ownership society. You can not complain about corporate America because indeed you are a part of it. Some absurd percentage of us is supposed to own stock in one way or another. Look at your retirement package, look at your life insurance, maybe you're so lucky as to have private investments too. The myth is we are all owners, we all are part of this great corporate America. Well, if we are all the owners, all in control, then tell me when the last time you voted for any of the top officers in any company you supposedly own stock in. Tell me just what control we, the ownership society, what control we have over this beast of a society we supposedly own.
Rant over. Thank you for your time.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7310947ThomWV's description of his pathetic life brings DUmmy losers out of the woodwork to commiserate with one another about how the blame for their worthless lives should be laid at the feet of America.
DUmmy ljmnumbers is outraged that wealthy people hold more investments than DUmmies:
ljm2002 (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-23-09 09:43 PM
Response to Original message
1. Excellent points...
...I think that the meme that "we are all owners now" was created to allow the Democrats and the unions, and their messages, to be entirely co-opted. To make people scared to rock the boat, because "then you could be the losers, too -- not just the big bad CEOs and the elites".
Of course they fail to mention the seriously paltry amounts that most of us have invested in stocks, etc. through our IRAs and the like. Especially when you compare these amounts to those held by the financial elites.
Rare is the DUmmy who discusses how to succeed. They much prefer to rage over the success of others. DUmmy WestSide BB shares the universal DUmmy concern that most other people have more stuff than he ever will:
WestSide BB (6 posts) Wed Dec-23-09 09:44 PM
Response to Original message
2. Corporate persons
Human greed has been with us since Bible times. But I think capitalism has accelerated it by rewarding it systematically. For maybe one generation, we thought working folks had more leisure time, but that like so many things has gone backward, thanx to the greedy people who control both our major political parties. I think it is a spiritual change that is needed. How can these people, once they have so much, keep grabbing more and more? Somethingis wrong with them. They must have no conscience. The devil is busy!
Doug's poor stupid ex-wife Beth, crammed into that camper with her pack of dogs, her mother, and her hostile brother, explains the American dream:
EFerrari (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-23-09 09:48 PM
Response to Original message
3. We own the false image of a life we'll never live, that's pretty much it.
And some people will go to the mat for that image. I could never understand that.
Mz Pip (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-23-09 09:54 PM
Response to Reply #3
7. I think it's why people vote Republican. They envision themselves in that image at some point in their lives - rich, in control, with more money than God.
They don't want to upset that apple cart just in case they ever get there. That and the goverment is so damn easy to hate. The meter maid that gave you a parking ticket 1 minute after the money ran out, the IRS quibbling over $100, blood alcohol limits, gun registration, helmut laws.Shit, you even have to get a license for your damn dog. Damn goverment.
I think DUmmy Mz Pip has listed all her legal problems here. And who doesn't hate those damn "helmut laws"?
Well, poor, stupid Beth should be loaded up with her new psych meds by now, but they may not have kicked in yet.
EFerrari (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-23-09 09:57 PM
Response to Reply #7
8. You must be right. There is no other benefit that I can think of.
The Republicans oppose most of the social nets that make life a little bit more manageable. Image is what they have to sell.
You have to hand it to poor, stupid Beth. If you're in your fifties, living in someone else's camper, the American dream just may be slipping away.
Another anonymous, unkown loser DUmmy:
lunatica (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-23-09 09:53 PM
Response to Original message
5. It's all part of history now.
Those days are gone, and they weren't all that great for every American.
No one cares about DUmmy Quantess:
Quantess (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-23-09 09:58 PM
Response to Original message
9. The American People are not valued, except for what they contribute to their Corporate Owners.
RagAss (1000+ posts) Wed Dec-23-09 10:21 PM
Response to Original message
10. We let it happen. We did nothing. We deserve this.
DUmmy RagAss hits the nail on the head. He and all his fellow DUmmy losers let their failure happen. They've never done a damn thing in their useless lives, and they do deserve the state they find themselves in.
