Some problems with the "work hard" theory of how to "get ahead" or be financially secure in the future:

1. Somebody will always have to scrub the toilets. By that I mean "do demeaning work for insulting pay, no matter who else does what else." Do you imagine the free market would pay the BEST toilet-scrubbers who work the hardest any more than it pays an average scrubber? The goal for people who control assets is to distribute the minimum possible amount of those assets to the people who necessarily scrub their toilets. I watched this in action with my own mother's business, a maid-service. The pay was (in 1992) a "generous" 6.50/hour. Work hard (and I worked for her, it was damn hard work) and your reward was a pittance and the privilege of keeping the job. Every de-regulation and free-market ideal in the world won't eliminate the need for toilet-scrubbers or insure that my mother would pay those who worked for her a living wage. It will simply lay the blame at the scrubber's feet that they didn't become CEO's instead. After all, "of course" there is room and opportunity for EVERYONE to be a CEO and everyone is capable of it... but then who would scrub the toilets?

2. People like me get stricken with Multiple Sclerosis at age 22. Actuarial tables demonstrate that the life-time cost of having/treating MS is roughly three million dollars. "Working hard" is redefined for me as "getting out of bed in the morning." It doesn't exactly pay enough to live on, let alone the dream of investing anything for the future. Even "working smart", (a phrase privileged people use when they don't believe toilet-scrubbers should be paid a living wage, suggesting that it's the toilet-scrubbers' fault that they didn't become CEO's instead) isn't an option for me because of the cognitive problems MS causes in about 80% of patients, me included.

It's insulting to suggest that everyone who works hard gets ahead, that everyone not getting ahead ISN'T work hard enough, that everyone CAN work hard enough to get ahead, or that there will ever be enough opportunities for hard-working people to work their way up into. Conversely (and perversely), often those who work the hardest doing the worst, most back-breaking jobs are usually the ones paid the least, especially in an unregulated system. Ask the illegal immigrant Mexicans waiting outside Home Depot every morning...

What we all fail to understand is that we're the good guys. When WE torture, we do it only for good reasons! When THEY torture us, they are just being evil barbarians. Now, don't make me have to thumb-screw you people until you finally GET IT. We're the GOOD GUYS!!! Our torture is justified. No one else's is. I think that about sums up the reasoning.

ARRRGGGGGHHHHH, get out of my head, filthy neo-con hypocrites!!!! Just having to write that was some kind of torture...

The lesson here is to those who believe themselves to be our masters... LITTLE BROTHER is watching, you oppressive (things I'm not allowed to call you here.) Those of you who wish, may side with the cop. You probably also think the National Guard was right to fire on the unarmed college students at Kent State University in 1971, and you probably won't protest if the draft is re-instated, even if you're not a war-supporter. Check yourselves, man. If you're not gonna carry around a camera, I hope you carry around lube for your own sake for when you run into this guy or one of his many clones.

I love Eddie! I love Legos! I love Star Wars! It's a triple-play!