I was hiking in the mountains a month ago and I realized I could never be rich.\u00c2\u00a0 That as hard as I might work, I’d never have the wealth of a banker.\u00c2\u00a0 And that was a revelation.\u00c2\u00a0 You see I too believed in the American Dream.\u00c2\u00a0 That if I worked hard, if I doubled down, I too could break through.\u00c2\u00a0 And now I’m not sure if I’ve wasted my whole life.<\/p>\n
I had no kids.\u00c2\u00a0 I don’t own my own home.\u00c2\u00a0 I sacrificed.\u00c2\u00a0 For what?<\/p>\n
From this vantage point I realize it’s about family.\u00c2\u00a0 And laughs.\u00c2\u00a0 You’re probably even more fulfilled sitting on the couch watching the tube with your children than you are being a fat cat.\u00c2\u00a0 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.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s like we’re all cogs in someone else’s machine.<\/p>\n
The most played song in my iTunes library is James McMurtry’s "We Can’t Make It Here Anymore".\u00c2\u00a0 It was written for the 2004 elections, to protest the policies of George Bush and the Republican Congress.<\/p>\n
A Democrat’s in power now, but listening to this record last night I realized this record is more timely than ever.<\/p>\n
Some have maxed out all their credit cards<\/span> My sister had to sell her house.\u00c2\u00a0 She’s got no health insurance.<\/p>\n This recession is kind of like Chris Rock’s comment on homosexuality.\u00c2\u00a0 We’ve all got a gay member in our family.\u00c2\u00a0 We all know someone who’s been crippled by this recession.<\/p>\n They talk about the future.\u00c2\u00a0 Cutting the deficit.\u00c2\u00a0 Saying we can’t afford health care.\u00c2\u00a0 Can’t afford to limit the corporations soiling our environment with chemicals that give us cancer.\u00c2\u00a0 But none of that matters if you’ve got nowhere to live, nothing to eat, no job.<\/p>\n Compassion is for losers.\u00c2\u00a0 Everybody’s a winner.\u00c2\u00a0 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".\u00c2\u00a0 But too many are losers.<\/p>\n It’s almost impossible to make it here anymore.<\/p>\n If you lose your job you might as well commit suicide.\u00c2\u00a0 Swallow the pain in one gulp.\u00c2\u00a0 They don’t want you to get unemployment, after all, you’re a slacker, you don’t want to work.\u00c2\u00a0 But there’s nowhere to work and how can you be an entrepreneur when no one’s got money to buy anything?<\/p>\n And that’s how it is<\/span> Can he feel our pain? <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I was hiking in the mountains a month ago and I realized I could never be rich.\u00c2\u00a0 That as hard as I might work, I’d never have the wealth of a banker.\u00c2\u00a0 And that was a revelation.\u00c2\u00a0 You see I too believed in the American Dream.\u00c2\u00a0 That if I worked hard, if I doubled down, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3505","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-life","category-the-music"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p96vPs-Ux","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3505","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3505"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3505\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3506,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3505\/revisions\/3506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3505"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3505"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lefsetz.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3505"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Some are working two jobs and living in cars<\/span>
Minimum wage won’t pay for a roof, won’t pay for a drink<\/span>
If you gotta have proof just try it yourself Mr. CEO<\/span>
See how far $5.15 an hour will go<\/span>
Take a part time job at one of your stores<\/span>
Bet you can’t make it here anymore<\/span><\/p>\n
That’s what we got<\/span>
If the President wants to admit it or not<\/span><\/p>\n
Because we’ve certainly got it.<\/p>\n