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Whining about Whiners?? 1/8/2004 10:12:07 AM
Another proudly conservative friend whined to me that she’s sick of the liberal whining about the economy and job situation. (nagging question - IS that a double standard??) “It hasn’t affected me, or anyone close to me,” she bragged.
My liberal nature wanted to argue that what affects others also affects me because I hate to see anyone suffer, but I chose a different route. “I’m not sure what your message is,” I answered. “Are you saying that because it hasn’t affect you and yours the problem doesn’t exist? Or do you mean you wish those affected would suffer silently so you don’t have to think about them?”
"I’m saying that I’ve been through tough times before and managed to pull out, and that’s what these cry-babies should do. They need to get another job and stop expecting everyone else to take care of them,” she explained.
I remembered a similar conversation with this woman in the past, when she argued that there would be no need for social programs if families simply “too care of their own”.
I threw out a few questions. What about the person who has no family, or whose family is incapable? Should the victim of incest be forced to pay her abuser’s hospital bill or feed him when he’s down and out? Or do we let him die in the street? Do we let the victim die in the street because she never learned to take care of herself and her children? Do we deprive her children of food and shelter because she can’t take care of them?
“Families should take care of her own,” was her final answer, which may be a good lesson topic for the high school religion class she teaches, but is inept as a social demand.
Resisting the urge to feed some of her favorite rhetoric back at her, “There have always been poor families who couldn’t support their own so why expect that to change now,” I asked if she truly thought it was her responsibility to make her brother’s mortgage payment if he lost his job.
“It’s his responsibility to find another job and not ask the taxpayers or me to bail him out,” she quickly replied.
“Suppose your brother is fifty-years-old, has spent twenty years in a comfortable job for a major corporation which now decides they don’t need him. He has mortgage, car, and credit card debt based on that income, but there are no equivalent jobs available for a man his age. Have you thought about how hard it would be for him to work the three minimum wage jobs it would take to meet his monthly expenses? Does he use his retirement money to pay off those debts and hope you will support him through his retirement years, or try to sell the house before he loses it and take a loss on the car that books at less than he owes on it? Does he take the Cobra insurance that will eat up one hundred hours of his minimum wages, or depend on you to pay his medical expenses if the stress of this situation causes his health to fail?”
Not surprising to me, she insisted that her family plans better than this so it’s not a concern to her. I hope mine has planned as well, because I sure can’t pay for my brother’s bypass surgery.
(nagging question: if liberal means generous, does conservative mean selfish)
