Times Change - Friday Rant

Same song, next verse.

When I was first married, we lived in a one bedroom apartment that rented for $75.00 a month. This was in the 60's. I was working at an Abstract company and pulling down all of $1.15 an hour. My salary paid all the bills: rent, utilities, groceries, gasoline, etc., etc. DJ was in law school and taught a Legal Bibliography class, which gave him spending money.

My job didn't provide health insurance, pension plan, life insurance or an annual bonus. I had no sick leave or personal leave, although I did get one week's vacation. But, we had enough money left over to go out to dinner a couple of Friday nights a month, and maybe a movie.

We weren't rich, but we weren't suffering, either, although one month we did have to cash in a bunch of Coke bottles in order to buy milk, bread and cigarettes. We lived across the street from a meat market and next door to a liquor store. All the conveniences.

By the time I was ready for retirement, I was making $11-$12 per hour, with all the perks, health insurance, pension plan, savings plan, sick leave, life insurance, sickness and accident insurance and our annual bonus was a turkey at Christmas.

Sounds pretty good? Well, I was barely scraping by, but at least it prepared me for an inadequate social security check. And, I wasn't the only one. The 80's nearly did us in. Remember? High inflation? Reaganomics? Morning in America? The old boy did some real damage, smiling and doddering all the while.

Now, thanks to our politicians, our manufacturing base is gone. and the national mantra has become, "You want fries with that?" or "Welcome to Wal-Mart".

Congratulations, voters. You've swallowed the propaganda, hook, line and sinker. We always want to blame Congress or the President, but, as wrong-headed as their policies may be, we have allowed them to flourish.

Time to put a stop to it.