The Hard Road
Maybe I've chosen the hard road. Maybe it's not that hard. I don't want to whine.
As a conservative, I believe that big business is almost as bad as big government (when you get the two together - go run and hide).
So I don't work for a large company. This is a philosophical and tempermental choice. The large firm I did work for was very pleasant but soul deadening. Moreover, it was ambition deadening. I felt myself getting fat and lazy there.
Now, my office is very small. My goal is to work totally for myself which would make my work environment even smaller people wise. But with that comes a lack of all those corporate benefits. The hard road. Maybe? But - for me - the right road.
As a conservative I don't think it's right of me to send my kids to public school. These are so controlled by the Feds that I have come to think of them as welfare schools. They are a disaster. Mainly, it just isn't right for me to take other people's money to education my kids. We're the ones who decided to have them. So I pay...and pay...and pay... Oh, and once a year, I get to pay a property tax bill to keep the dysfunctional public school going. Again. The hard road?
We'll survive. It's not like I'm not one of the world richest just by living in this country. It's not like we'll starve. I'm just tired of always taking the hard road. I'd like a little extra comfort.
In Kentucky, food stamps are on a credit card type thing now. Recipents just swipe their card to pay in the same place we swipe our check card. The Divine Mrs. M. was stuck in the grocery for a while as the kids and I waited for her in the car. It seems like a woman was having trouble with her free-food card. The clerk worked it out. The customer then paid for her cigarettes with cash.
We don't live in an affluent neighborhood so this is a frequent scene. They are friends and neighbors. I like them. They come to my kids birthday parties and I drop their kids off after activities. But, these people do know how to work the system. I've been there when it's discussed. It pisses me off. But sometimes I'm a little jealous of that.
Can't someone else pay for the groceries? I could really use that money for a little extra fun - even if it's just some cigarettes.
Stay You.
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As a conservative, I believe that big business is almost as bad as big government (when you get the two together - go run and hide).
So I don't work for a large company. This is a philosophical and tempermental choice. The large firm I did work for was very pleasant but soul deadening. Moreover, it was ambition deadening. I felt myself getting fat and lazy there.
Now, my office is very small. My goal is to work totally for myself which would make my work environment even smaller people wise. But with that comes a lack of all those corporate benefits. The hard road. Maybe? But - for me - the right road.
As a conservative I don't think it's right of me to send my kids to public school. These are so controlled by the Feds that I have come to think of them as welfare schools. They are a disaster. Mainly, it just isn't right for me to take other people's money to education my kids. We're the ones who decided to have them. So I pay...and pay...and pay... Oh, and once a year, I get to pay a property tax bill to keep the dysfunctional public school going. Again. The hard road?
We'll survive. It's not like I'm not one of the world richest just by living in this country. It's not like we'll starve. I'm just tired of always taking the hard road. I'd like a little extra comfort.
In Kentucky, food stamps are on a credit card type thing now. Recipents just swipe their card to pay in the same place we swipe our check card. The Divine Mrs. M. was stuck in the grocery for a while as the kids and I waited for her in the car. It seems like a woman was having trouble with her free-food card. The clerk worked it out. The customer then paid for her cigarettes with cash.
We don't live in an affluent neighborhood so this is a frequent scene. They are friends and neighbors. I like them. They come to my kids birthday parties and I drop their kids off after activities. But, these people do know how to work the system. I've been there when it's discussed. It pisses me off. But sometimes I'm a little jealous of that.
Can't someone else pay for the groceries? I could really use that money for a little extra fun - even if it's just some cigarettes.
Stay You.
Back to Main Page
posted by Howard McEwen, CFA at Wednesday, June 01, 2005
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