... wanna help the economy? Get a job. Make money. Pay your debts on time. Save, and spend responsibly. Invest, and plan for your future and your children's future.
Or, you could go take a low-paying job, depend on government subsidies, and apparently not worry about paying off your student loans. This is the advice of Senator Obama, and it's silly advice, as Tom Keane rightly notes in the Boston Globe.
As he succincly puts it-- "t's trendy to demonize the profit seeking. So be it. I understand how political fashions come and go. Just don't be too effective at it, though. It's those private sector workers, remember, who ultimately are the ones paying the public sector's bills."
Please tell me you're telling people today to just "get a job" just for shock value. Because I had one, up to last week. Lost it though, through no dependence on government subsidies or a willingness to abdicate my financial responsibilities to someone else.
Gotta tell ya - the more I read stuff like this, the more I think the term "compassionate conservative" is an oxymoron. I don't get the impression you care that much, though. Whatever gets another 4 years, right?
Wasn't it just last year that you couldn't stomach the prospect of John McCain as the party's nominee? (I recall a conversation in the 5th floor atrium.) When did that change? Is party allegiance that strong? And don't they call that kind of blind allegiance "fundamentalism" in other parts of the world? If you really believed in personal responsibility, shouldn't you be saying that it's time for the party to own its failures, for once? Because NONE of this shit has worked, or is working - and now, as a result, I'm not working.
But I guess I must just be someone who doesn't want to help the economy, so what do I know, right?
Posted by: Gary | September 23, 2008 at 10:37 PM
What a bizarre dichotomy you've set up. I wonder which category you think I'd belong in - I suspect that because I have a low-paying nonprofit job which I chose because I love the work, and use HLS money to help pay my loans, it's the latter, even though I have a job, a regular paycheck, no consumer debt, good spending habits, savings, a mutual fund, retirement, and a 529 for my child (thus hitting all your categories, which are well-chosen.)
This kind of Townhall-style either-or makes for a snappy column, but not very useful commentary on real people's choices.
Posted by: Andrea | October 03, 2008 at 06:57 PM