Life and money don’t grow on a tree

When someone uses a term like “basic,” to me that means “at the base of” or beginning.  The dictionary says, “essential foundation or starting point; fundamental.”  This would probably even be less than minimum wages, which is where I started at 14 years old delivering newspapers on my bicycle and selling “all-occasion cards” door-to-door on foot.  

My first real full-time job was as a groundskeeper at a private school and a gas station attendant; while at the same time, I bought junk cars for under $50 (usually around $15 or less) from people’s backyards, repaired them and resold them for a few hundred; then I mowed yards, and washed cars in people’s yards. By saving all that I could, I was able to put myself through college and kept working to pay my bills.  My parents needed money to raise my five brothers and sisters, and I gave them everything they needed, too.

My second real job as I started college was at Hiab Hydraulics Inc. building, painting, welding, installing, and repairing hydraulic cranes on large trucks, Amtraks, amphibious vehicles, and boats.  At first, I knew nothing about all of that, but they trained me.  I went from basic salary and benefits to a rather good wage in spite of my shortcomings and screwups.  

Then I was drafted to the Vietnam War and my whole life changed as I married and started a family all at the same time, and left wife and child behind.  

It was many years later that I was able to climb out of that hole and make a better life and wage.

So I’m not quite sure with what folks are looking for today. There are too many free handouts and not enough people willing to work hard for something they want.

I think that too many people don’t really know what they want, and aren’t willing to work hard to start something or several somethings like I did until they can make a better life for themselves. It takes time and patience.

Life and money don’t grow on a tree where we can just reach out and pick it for free and enjoy it - that’s called stealing, because someone else would have planted that tree, nourished it, and produced that fruit that one might pick and walk away with.

Life and money come at a price, like “freedom and liberty,” and someone has to pay the price for those cherished blessings. Someone has to be willing to do all of the work that it takes to achieve those blessings of life and money like freedom and liberty.

It should never be expected that these things would be handed over to anyone who might want them.

And I think that includes bail-out money or whatever one may want to call it from the government.  Those funds are intended for all of the people of the United States of America and not a choice few.

In the Great Depression, the government created jobs and paid people to work those jobs building dams, bridges, highways and many other services that served all of the people and not a few. Then World War II was thrust upon us, and we allies worked our butts off to save not only the USA but the whole world. That is where that money should go and how it should be used to rebuild America. Our highways and bridges are on the verge of collapse and need rebuilding throughout the U.S. There are countless infrastructures and fundamental services like clean energy and vehicles that need building. This would be constructive use of $2 trillion. It would be a crime to do otherwise.