Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
I got cancer a month after I turned 23. While I was lucky to have a job with health insurance, had I been diagnosed 4 months before (or 3 years before when I first showed symptoms) I would have had either no health insurance or inadequate insurance. While new health rulings make it so that you can go til 26 and still be insured under your parents, my parents were uninsured until recently as are many of my adult family due to layoffs, COBRA ending, and being forced to take salary cuts in jobs with no benefits. My healthcare costs have gone over $200,000. Even with insurance, my bills have amounted to almost my entire yearly take home salary - and I make $35,000 gross a year.
I'm told every day here that you only deserve the health care that you can afford. On the flip side, I'm told that I shouldn't expect a huge salary. I agree with the latter - I work my tush off in order to grow my marketable skills, my value in the workplace, and my wealth. But because I'm 23 and spent the last 4 years paying my way through college, I deserve to die? As it stands, I am at a high risk for relapse and will not be able to pursue the treatment that will save my life because I have no way to survive the 4-6 months out of work it would require. I am trapped in a high cost of living area because moving and taking a new job means I would lose the FMLA benefit.
I am the reason my friends are out there with OWS. Many of them were denied medical insurance or quoted at high rates ($600+ a month due to asthma or depression is near impossible on a salary of $25,000 a year) until they came to Massachusetts which offers more affordable options so everyone is covered.
I am thankful to be alive, but I am more thankful every day that I serve an example to my quickly-changing-their-minds conservative friends that this could happen to them. I was in a better position than the vast majority of my friends - debt free, a little cushion of savings, etc etc - and I'm still going to struggle for the next 10 years because I have to base ALL of my decisions around the benefits afforded to me by my employer which does not always match the best career or salary positioning.
I don't want things handed to me - I would like help today so I can continue being a productive citizen tomorrow rather than die at age 25 or 26 because I cannot afford an expensive but life saving medical procedure.
A very simplistic response. What do you consider "low wages"? The OWS consider them anything under $20 an hour!! And where are these low-wages being paid? McDonald's? Of course....a job at McDonald's is not a career, except for the ambitious few that stay with it long enough to get promoted (I personally know many successful franchise owners that started out as McDonald's janitors). And how are low-wages not rewarding hard-work? You are paid a rate the free marketplace allows and that is prevailing in that industry.You want better pay, find a different job. And develop some skills that are desirable enough to where you as a worker become more valuable and in demand. But no one deserves a high-wage simply because they exist.
Speaking of McDonald's, we had an incident at KFC, another big franchise. My wife and I stopped at a local KFC, my wife always liked their fried chicken. When we got to the ordering window, the attended was Mexican. She couldn't speak English. When we got our order, it was the wrong chicken order. Nobody understood our complaint. Now, I'm not even sure these employees were legally here. It wasn't too many years ago most of the employees were highschool or college age American citizens and customer service was always at it's best. These days, working at a fast food franchise is beneath these kids, they would rather be protesting and pooping out on the street. Illegal aliens now have to replace these protesting students. Their parent's would have been very thankful if they got these jobs. No wonder we have such a huge problem at our border with illegal aliens, -they want what we have that OWS don't want, -JOBS !!!!:rolle yes:
Speaking of McDonald's, we had an incident at KFC, another big franchise. My wife and I stopped at a local KFC, my wife always liked their fried chicken. When we got to the ordering window, the attended was Mexican. She couldn't speak English. When we got our order, it was the wrong chicken order. Nobody understood our complaint. Now, I'm not even sure these employees were legally here. It wasn't too many years ago most of the employees were highschool or college age American citizens and customer service was always at it's best. These days, working at a fast food franchise is beneath these kids, they would rather be protesting and pooping out on the street. Illegal aliens now have to replace these protesting students. Their parent's would have been very thankful if they got these jobs. No wonder we have such a huge problem at our border with illegal aliens, -they want what we have that OWS don't want, -JOBS !!!!:rolle yes:
As with most Repugs , you have it backwards....immigrants, legal and illegal , will work for lower wages and accept bad working conditions and lousy benefits....so who do you think will be hired first?
It's stupid to think immigrants work harder, they don't.
It's stupid to think Americans won't do these jobs....a white American friend in her fifties got turned down at a fast food place because she didn't speak Spanish.
Repugs also are totally unaware of wage stagnation over the last 20 years for middle class Americans....while executive pay rose 23% in just the last year.
Why do Repugs think only executives work or deserve pay raises??
That's a stupid thing to think.
Why do Repugs think the millions who were laid off in this country did so voluntarily because they all decided at once that they didn't want to work and wanted to lose their homes???
That's a stupid thing to think.
Why do Repugs call this the Greatest Country in the World and insist that working 80-90 hours a week just to survive is "Great" ?
Speaking of McDonald's, we had an incident at KFC, another big franchise. My wife and I stopped at a local KFC, my wife always liked their fried chicken. When we got to the ordering window, the attended was Mexican. She couldn't speak English. When we got our order, it was the wrong chicken order. Nobody understood our complaint. Now, I'm not even sure these employees were legally here. It wasn't too many years ago most of the employees were highschool or college age American citizens and customer service was always at it's best. These days, working at a fast food franchise is beneath these kids, they would rather be protesting and pooping out on the street. Illegal aliens now have to replace these protesting students. Their parent's would have been very thankful if they got these jobs. No wonder we have such a huge problem at our border with illegal aliens, -they want what we have that OWS don't want, -JOBS !!!!:rolle yes:
Funny. I have had the same experience. But then I live in Southern California, so it is inevitable...
...after high school, back in the early seventies, one our gang went to work for the local macdonald's...we used to break his stones mercilessly, the hat, 'ya want fries with that', etc....well, he's now a 1%er's....owns six units
Carl Icahn started his business wth $4,000 he won playing poker,
Dominos was started using $500
Bill Gates bought Dos for $75,000
HP was started for $538
Google turned into a multi billion dollar company due to $100,000 startup capital.
There are tons of success stories in america that wouldnt have taken place anywhere else.
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
