How am I taking tidbits of your words and making them into a story that I want? I simply called you out on exactly what you said, both your facts and your angry, self-righteous tone.
You said your father has put you through college and has retired after 25 years. Presuming he started working at 25, we have him retiring at what, 50? Who pays for their kids' college and retires at 50? Investment bankers and plastic surgeons, that's who. The rest of the country works well into old age (most without adequate health insurance) and has their kids taking on student loans.
You opened your comment with anger, talking about your disgust, accusing crabapple of over-generalization and ignorance, and essentially dismissing all of us as moneybags who use hypothetical Denny's waitresses to degrade your family or ignore your hardship. (Read: shut up and fork over the money - or, pardon me, you stated that you are as of yet undecided whether it would benefit your family, so I guess we'll just sit tight and wait for your decision.)
You accuse me of zeal and psycho-analyze my anger but I am just reacting to the broad-daylight robbery that is taking place. People like you think that if they make a lot of noise and talk about their dads working their asses of for x number of years, we'll all get misty eyed and just hand over our money.
You are now getting a dose of your own medicine. I take your dad's 2-hour commute and raise you mine's World War II. Ridiculous, isn't it. When auto workers and their families stop blanketing the internet with their sob stories, we'll stop commenting on them. Over.
no where did i say my dad only worked 25 years. i said he worked for gm over 25 years. does this mean it was his first job, no? as for student loans, i certainly do have them. it's unfortunate that in this country simply getting student loans will not pay for a four year school. again, i believe i said "benefit my country or my family". do i have to go on? seriously, this is the classic case of reading what you want to read to form the picture to fit your preconceived notions.
sure, "you raise me" wwII. wtf? i'm sorry for what your dad went through, but so did my grandparents who were born in eastern europe and escaped to america. i just don't get this idea that you can't feel any compassion if someone didn't escape genocide. there's a lot more complexity to people's stories than you may realize.
my simple point is not that you should cry for any autoworker or even give them a dime. i'm just sick of hearing statement like crabapple's which completely exaggerate the facts.
* 8x wages - no
* no deductable healthcare - not for 10 years
* work less - by my personal experience, no
it comes from this characature of what the reality is. the fact is AMERICANS ARE PRIVILEGED. i get it. i'm not asking anyone to cry for my family. what i am saying is that chances are most auto workers are hard working people like the rest of us. i know my father didn't escape ethnic conflict in europe in wwII, but he certainly did the best of his ability to provide for his family. i'm not saying that deserves your money, but i am saying that it doesn't deserve to be belittled.
hmmm... you know i just wrote this, and i'm realizing i'm just falling into this trap needless argument. looking back at my thread i think i approached crabapple's initial comment with way too much zeal myself. the thing that irked me the most about crabapple's comment was not the point (ie agreeing with mit romney's position), but the way in which he/she went about making it. by perpetuating this characature of the "uaw king", i feel like it belittles honest, working americans like my father. i realize that my father was lucky for being born in america after wwII, but he did the best he could with the hand he was dealt and my pride certainly show through.
You said your father has put you through college and has retired after 25 years. Presuming he started working at 25, we have him retiring at what, 50? Who pays for their kids' college and retires at 50? Investment bankers and plastic surgeons, that's who. The rest of the country works well into old age (most without adequate health insurance) and has their kids taking on student loans.
You opened your comment with anger, talking about your disgust, accusing crabapple of over-generalization and ignorance, and essentially dismissing all of us as moneybags who use hypothetical Denny's waitresses to degrade your family or ignore your hardship. (Read: shut up and fork over the money - or, pardon me, you stated that you are as of yet undecided whether it would benefit your family, so I guess we'll just sit tight and wait for your decision.)
You accuse me of zeal and psycho-analyze my anger but I am just reacting to the broad-daylight robbery that is taking place. People like you think that if they make a lot of noise and talk about their dads working their asses of for x number of years, we'll all get misty eyed and just hand over our money.
You are now getting a dose of your own medicine. I take your dad's 2-hour commute and raise you mine's World War II. Ridiculous, isn't it. When auto workers and their families stop blanketing the internet with their sob stories, we'll stop commenting on them. Over.