I was hiking in the mountains a month ago and I realized I could never be rich.  That as hard as I might work, I’d never have the wealth of a banker.  And that was a revelation.  You see I too believed in the American Dream.  That if I worked hard, if I doubled down, I too could break through.  And now I’m not sure if I’ve wasted my whole life.

I had no kids.  I don’t own my own home.  I sacrificed.  For what?

From this vantage point I realize it’s about family.  And laughs.  You’re probably even more fulfilled sitting on the couch watching the tube with your children than you are being a fat cat.  But if you can’t pay the bills, if you don’t have a roof over your head, you can’t relax, you can’t enjoy life, you’re constantly running scared, trying to stay ahead of the bill collectors who say they’re just doing their job.  It’s like we’re all cogs in someone else’s machine.

The most played song in my iTunes library is James McMurtry’s "We Can’t Make It Here Anymore".  It was written for the 2004 elections, to protest the policies of George Bush and the Republican Congress.

A Democrat’s in power now, but listening to this record last night I realized this record is more timely than ever.

Some have maxed out all their credit cards
Some are working two jobs and living in cars
Minimum wage won’t pay for a roof, won’t pay for a drink
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO
See how far $5.15 an hour will go
Take a part time job at one of your stores
Bet you can’t make it here anymore

My sister had to sell her house.  She’s got no health insurance.

This recession is kind of like Chris Rock’s comment on homosexuality.  We’ve all got a gay member in our family.  We all know someone who’s been crippled by this recession.

They talk about the future.  Cutting the deficit.  Saying we can’t afford health care.  Can’t afford to limit the corporations soiling our environment with chemicals that give us cancer.  But none of that matters if you’ve got nowhere to live, nothing to eat, no job.

Compassion is for losers.  Everybody’s a winner.  From the bankers to the inner city denizens who believe they’re gonna be famous rappers or ballers and the kids who are convinced their screenplay is gonna be the next "Batman".  But too many are losers.

It’s almost impossible to make it here anymore.

If you lose your job you might as well commit suicide.  Swallow the pain in one gulp.  They don’t want you to get unemployment, after all, you’re a slacker, you don’t want to work.  But there’s nowhere to work and how can you be an entrepreneur when no one’s got money to buy anything?

And that’s how it is
That’s what we got
If the President wants to admit it or not

Can he feel our pain?
Because we’ve certainly got it.