curious wrote:
<quoted text>
Curious though...what kind of work did you do?
I too am a male, age 52, but I'm not a recognized minority, but it doesn't really matter. I was a medical professional working in Indiana's medical industry for 30 years, when my employer was bought out by a bigger employer. All of us that had been working for years for the first employer were sacked a year later to make room for the new employer's people. I went to work for the state after that, at a reduced rate, with no benefits and at limited hours due to worsening physical problems brought on by the type of work I did. Then comes our man mitch to save us all, promised to privatize the state and save money. The new mitch privatization people promised to come in and let us keep our jobs. They didn't, most of use got fired right off, the rest were offered jobs at up to 85% lower wages and little or no benefits. Myself, I came in one day to see my replacement sitting at my station, I was instructed to show him everything I new about our job in four hours and then I was told I was to go home, don't come back, thank you very much.
Last year I worked three days fill and then I had to file for disability, this takes three years at best in Indiana now, I have two more years to wait before I know if I can get disability. I can't get unemployment because I was a contract worker and deemed not allowed to have unemployment compensation. My disability is due to chronic work related problems, not a single injury and a known hazard for my profession. That's a fancy way of saying that I'm not allowed workmen's compensation. I have insurance from my wife's employer, the hospital that owns the insurance company is also the only hospital that I'm allowed to got to for care. They don't care much and they don't allow anything or pay for much.
Sad story, but I'm only one of probably thousands that are in the same boat in Indiana, and there are probably hundreds who are worse off than myself. Are there programs from the state to help, yes, but I don't fit the requirements to get in, or if I do fit, I can't afford them. Most people in Indiana don't care, their situation is just as bad. My only advantage is that I managed to pay off most of my long term bills before the bottom fell out from under me. My neighbor's allow me to sponge off their wireless connection, but he doesn't have a job anymore either, so who knows how long this will last. Are we in a depression like the Great Depression of my parent's time? No, not that bad, but from my standpoint, we are and have been in a depression for at least a year and I don't see our leaders doing a thing to stop it, as long as it doesn't affect them or their cronies, and Mitch seems to have more cronies than anybody out there.
If we took what was wasted by our wealthy and our politicians and used it properly to help the people of this country, we'd all be better off. When Bush started all this, we were told by the economists that 98% of the nation's monies were tied up with 2% of the nation's population, I think it's now 99% and 1% and who knows what tomorrow will bring. I hope they are happy and healthy, they can afford to be.
But as long as Bush is trying to give me money in hopes of making me feel better enough to vote for the status quo, well, that may look good to him and his cronies, but I'm going to have to use it to pay my property taxes for last year. As this story started saying, the Indiana assessors are being forced to reduce the taxes on big business in indiana, and they are being forced to increase the property taxes on the people who can't afford it. My Man Mitch and his cronies have lied to us enough, they stand at the top of a pyramid they built that has a base made by us that is falling apart, everyday one or more of us is crushed a little more by their weight, and they fail too see it from the top.
rant over for now.
Judge it!
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