Playing by the Rules

I can't find the article and I don't remember if it was online, in the newspaper, or in a magazine--or even, if those, what mag or what newspaper.  But it told the story of a Carolina (North or South?  I don't remember that either!) who did everything the right way, the way he was taught and told to everything.  He worked hard in school, earned a degree and more, picked up a good job, bought a house the right way (that is, without gov't assistance or insistence), paid for his kids' college educations, etc.  Then, in the economic downturn of ten years ago, he lost his job, unable to find another one.  Of course, he was also a victim of the housing fiasco, losing it, too.  And, he struggles today.  It's not a happy story, not one with a happy ending, at least not so far.

What struck me was that he didn't get a bailout.  He got no government help.  Nobody was there to give him "a safety net."  He played by the rules and then was left out to hang when things went topsy turvy.

The auto companies were bailed out even though it was pretty well known in Detroit that they were making lousy products.  The UAW and its members were bailed out even though they were a large part of the problem with GM, Chrysler, and even Fords.  (Note their demands for ridiculously high wages and perks, including work rules.  Remember, though, they didn't unilaterally get these things.  Management agreed--and was bailed out.)  The banks were bailed out, regardless of the sub-prime catastrophe (Let's not let government off the hook, not with its demands to give mortgages to far too many people who didn't deserve them.  I know, I know...  "Everybody deserves everything.")  Wall Street, with all its underhanded shenanigans, was bailed out.

Obama was in town the other day at the auto show bragging about how the auto companies have rebounded, that it was the government bailouts that led the way.  He omitted something.  How about those on whose backs the bailouts came?  How about those who paid for the bailouts?  How about those who weren't bailed out?  I wonder how the many suppliers who went out of business feel.  I wonder how many of the bondholders who saw their investments wiped out feel.  I wonder how the dealers and all of their former employees feel.  I do know how this taxpayer feels, in that GM and FCA have made record sales and profits over the past year or so, but still didn't pay more than $16 billion in federal bailout loans (that is, our tax money), which have been wiped off the books.

It's like so much in this society.  Good behavior goes unrewarded or even punished while bad behavior is rewarded.  It's very disheartening.

The newspaper was filled yesterday and today with editorials, op-eds, and letters from readers demanding punishment for the teachers who've staged the sick-outs.  Oh, they want fines and criminal charges and decertification and......  I guess these guys never read my blog.  Hey, folks, these teachers aren't striking, er, sick-outing, for more pay, more benefits, nothing for themselves.  They are trying to draw attention to despicable conditions in the schools in Detroit, conditions that these same editors, op-ed writers, and letter writers have apparently ignored.  Maybe, though, they think trying to learn and teach with rats running around is pretty easy.  Hey, maybe that's how they learned, if they did.  But my guess is that's not the case, not at all.  I ask, where were all these folks before the rotten conditions were exposed by the sick-outing teachers?  I know where, so do you--and so do they.  Gee, I wonder what they would have thought had water dept workers staged sick-outs to draw attention to the water in Flint??????  It's not as if anyone paid much attention to that at first.  Ah, but I forget.  It's so easy to be a teacher.  (Well, it is easy to be a teacher. What's hard is to be a good teacher."

OK, I know gas prices are incredibly low.  I never thought we'd see the day again when they hit $1.50 a gallon.  (Of course, I remember the price wars on Telegraph Rd in the '60s, when gas could be bought for 18 or 19 cents a gallon!)  But everything else seem remarkably high.  I just returned from grocery shopping and prices are way up there.  This is esp so with meats and much produce.  I just stop buying them.  Even tea bags--more than $6 for a box of Lipton tea bags and that's pretty much the same price at two different stores.