Hey Joe,
I have got to tell you, I think you are one hell of a writer and an all around good ol' boy who I would be proud to have a beer (or several for that matter ) with. Sorry to say I just discovered your website this past summer. But now I check it out every day. I have read and reread your essays and everything you write seems to mirror my own thoughts, although you express yourself much more elegantly than I can. I first read "Adam Smith Meets Cousin Ronnie's Boy" and I must say I was hooked.
We need people like you helping to keep our heads out of the sand. My own head was covered for years. I think I was so busy trying to make a living that I just did not give a shit about what was going on in the world around me. I had no illusions of being middle class. I, my family and friends were working class grunts and I accepted this and headed off for work -- for better or for worse. I worked as a fry cook for about seven years until the births of my son and daughter when I had to find a better paying job.
I took a job with an industrial paint contractor and after my apprenticeship I was making $10.40 per hour. This was in 1977 and I thought I had it made. I worked jobs all over Kansas and Oklahoma in the late 70's and through the 80's. In the 80's I could go to work just about anywhere for $16.00 or more per hour.
Then something happened and the same contractors were paying less than $10 per hour. Part of it was rising costs, insurance, fuel, etc. But I think plain old fashioned greed played a big part. There were more workers from south of the border coming to the US and the contractors knew a good thing when they saw it. Why pay someone $16 per hour when there were plenty of workers to be had for far less?
Joe, I'm not knocking the immigrants -- legal or illegal. They have as much right to better themselves as me or anyone else. It is the contractors taking advantage of the chance to put more money in their pockets -- and the more in their pockets, the less in ours.
As for now, I am out of the work force and drawing Social Security disability because of arthritis in my ankles and knees (too much climbing for too many years). Every month I wonder if I will get my check or get fucked out of it somehow.
I can't help it, I just don't trust our federal government. Hell, I don't trust our state government or the city for that matter. At least Kansas hasn't bombed any one yet, although I am sure there are some in our state legislature who would like to.
There are people who think that us Kansas folk are all a bunch of ignorant clod hoppin', bible thumpin', straw chewin' creationists, and if you were to venture down to one of the local bars on any given night you might be led to believe it. But we're mostly just good people doing the best we can with what we got. Not much different from folks in Virginia or anywhere else in this country -- and there are some of us who are waking up and wiping the shit out of our eyes so's to get a better look at what's going on around us. And the dirt out of our ears so we might listen and learn something.
Right now I hear a cold beer calling so I'm out of here for now. God bless you and yours and keep on keepin' on.
Jim
Kansas
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Jim,
Right on the money, bud!
I have yet to encounter the America that is spoon-fed to us by the media elites and their coiffured minions and smug commentators. That's why I wrote my book.
Thank you for your straight-ahead letter. There is profundity and eloquence in its unadulterated and personal honesty.
Solidarity,
Joe
