Get a job, ya bum

[Dubya]

So Ive been pondering lately on the attitude I used to have.

Well, attitudes.

See, first, I was naive enough to look at bums on the corners and actually think, get a job.

Later, having been one of them, I thought, well, it's hard, but if you really want to, you can pull yourself out of the gutter.

Still later, things werent quite so dire. I was again unemployed, but I had learned a little about the system and was getting several kinds of welfare. There was simply no work to be had, so I settled into a state of apathy that still appalls me when I think about  it.

More recently, I found myself in this town where I am now. There was work nominally available, but not unless you had local connections. So I almost spitefully went back to various kinds of welfare.

Very recently, I actually found work, or a reasonable facsimile. And now I find that I have a predicament.

See, to keep this job, I need a vehicle. To keep the vehicle, I need a license. To get my license, I need to pay  thousands of dollars in tickets. Plus  two kinds of insurance. Plus still be able to put gas in said vehicle

On top of that, once I report my income to the powers that be, I'll have to begin paying for health insurance. And child
support, which I don't mind in general terms, but I find very unjust in my case for reasons that would take up another whole post.

Generally speaking, its actually costing me money to work.

Im not suggesting that I shouldn't be responsible for these obligations, but damn me its a steep climb out of the gutter

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

Yep. That's something that not a lot of people have the ability to really understand. Nor do most people have a well-formed capacity to understand that other people may have circumstances that limit them beyond what is immediately obvious.

[Doktor Howl]

Yep.  "Bootstrapping" is an insulting term used by people who have never missed a meal.

"Get a job" is not a constructive comment, when half of homeless people are mentally ill, and the other half are in situations like yours or worse.

[Dubya]

I gotta say, from where I'm sitting, all the big issues, the societal issues that are so much fun to play with on an intellectual level, they take on roughly the same sense of urgency as phlogiston chemistry.

If society goes completely sideways, I think itll be just that much funnier. The difference between seeing a stranger do a pratfall versus someone you know and dislike.

Or that could just be exhaustion talking. Three quarter inch plywood is ridiculously heavy, and I built a porch out of it today. Another example of real-world geometry. In a perfect world, it would be almost seamless. As it is, I give it two years at most before it begins rotting around the edges because none of them were straight. Or even crooked in the same way.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I would be pretty sad because if society does just go completely sideways, my kids wouldn't stand a chance, I'd lose everything I've worked toward without ever grasping it, and most of my friends would probably not make it. Including you guys.

So I don't think it would be especially funny.

[Doktor Howl]

I would be pretty sad because if society does just go completely sideways, my kids wouldn't stand a chance, I'd lose everything I've worked toward without ever grasping it, and most of my friends would probably not make it. Including you guys.

So I don't think it would be especially funny.

Yeah, my kids are grown, but my parents are elderly and not healthy.  Things going sideways would result in their deaths.

But I didn't have to haul 3/4" boards around, so what do I fucking know?

[Junkenstein]

I would be pretty sad because if society does just go completely sideways, my kids wouldn't stand a chance, I'd lose everything I've worked toward without ever grasping it, and most of my friends would probably not make it. Including you guys.

So I don't think it would be especially funny.

Ain't that the truth. In every "Burn it all down" scenario, the burner seems to forget that they'll need to eat, shit or similar. If the line of "civilisation is always 3 meals from collapse" holds true, then surely no water for half that would fuck things up tremendously.

[Faust]

its the paradox of, I want society to collapse and I want to retain all the benefits, or I am blissfully unaware of the benefits because they are an ingrained subtle and permissive through every aspect of my life.

I want liberty but I don't want to lose anything.

Its fucking hard to get out of the poverty trap. I worked about a decade as security and then a shop clerk, before there was any sign of anything better showing up, and even then it ended up being by chance, if it hadn't been for a chance introduction by a friend I'd probably still be packing backs and living off 5 Euro a day.

[Dubya]

Nah, I was just tired. Those sheets of plywood weigh over a hundred pounds, and it had been raining, so not only were they heavy, but also slippery and the footing was bad.

imagine doing deadlifts on roller skates

I only want to set the world on fire when I'm exhausted. The rest of the time I'm quiet and laid back.

[Doktor Howl]

Nah, I was just tired. Those sheets of plywood weigh over a hundred pounds, and it had been raining, so not only were they heavy, but also slippery and the footing was bad.

imagine doing deadlifts on roller skates

I only want to set the world on fire when I'm exhausted. The rest of the time I'm quiet and laid back.

Totally understandable.

[hooplala]

I want to set the world on fire about three times a week, for no discernible reason. So, I admire your self restraint.

[Doktor Howl]

I, on the other hand, am a latter day Leo Buscaglia, and I just want everyone to be nice.  All the time.  Forever.

[hooplala]

I, on the other hand, am a latter day Leo Buscaglia, and I just want everyone to be nice.  All the time.  Forever.

Some day we'll find it, the rainbow connection.

[Doktor Howl]

I, on the other hand, am a latter day Leo Buscaglia, and I just want everyone to be nice.  All the time.  Forever.

Some day we'll find it, the rainbow connection.

I suspect it's 13,800 VAC.