The Great Depression (21st Century Style)

Ok.
All you hear about in newspapers, TV, and the Internet is that there is this approaching "Great Global Recession" and how the world needs to be rescued from these "TRYING FINANCIAL TIMES"
etc...

I have only one question then:

WHY THE F--K were there streaming lines outside of most department stores on the day after Thanksgiving? It looked like any other "black Friday" to me.

It seems to me that if the current state of the market was in such horrible disarray, then the average consumer would not have any extra money to spend on the shopping day that gets most retailers out of the red and into the black.
From my limited and local perspective, it appears that the American CONSUMER MACHINE is still gulping down oysters like Lewis Carroll's famous walrus.
I cannot even fathom how many heels were clipped by overzealous shopping carts on Friday.

I was not alive in the 1920's but I am pretty sure all the Great Depression stories have nothing to do with canning what little food you can garden for the winter and then running to Macy's because all linens were 25% off the day after Turkey Day.

COME TO THINK OF IT. The only people I know that didn't have ANY money to spare the day after Thanksgiving were people like me.
I find myself wishing that I had the money to play around with that I had in my early twenties.
(this is extremely depressing because I was not a college graduate at the time, and now that I am, I do not have a pot to piss in or a window to throw it out).
(I blame this for our tax bracket, the fact that we do not look for public assistance, and the fact that despite the fact that I have a crippling disease I work anyway). This gets me to thinking exactly WHO is being impacted by the current economic Depression.

1) US citizens. (People who were born in the US or naturalized citizens from other nations) Illegal immigrants do not pay taxes but participate in public assistance programs. This is a double whammy because they do not contribute to funding these programs, but get the benefits of them.
2) People who are NOT lazy pieces of shit.(Nurses, construction workers, factory workers, security guards, retail workers, food service workers, public employees, etc...) If you have no desire to work and know how to use the system for your benefit, then the current financial woes should be of little consequence to you. I hold down a full time job and pay $6,000/year for health insurance. ( This does not include copays and deductibles I must hit before it starts to pay 80/20) I pay $600/month for rent (medical bills have ruined my credit so I am forced to rent) My car payment is $375/month (the only luxury item I possess is my SUV) I owe roughly $30,000 in medical bills accrued while I was in college. (I finished college despite getting a diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis going into my junior year). ALL of the financial difficulties that I face would have been avoided if I would have done the following:
Dropped out of college
Went on disability (welfare for people who are able-bodied)
Applied for a HUD residence
Applied for food stamps
Applied for Medicaid (thus erasing the medical debt that insures that I will never have money again)
Defaulted on my student loans.
I think you get the idea.

3), People who have achieved the American Dream and became successful. This is the physicians, lawyers, administrators, and small business owners. These are the people who are getting ass raped with a double barrell shotgun. They worked very hard and owe tens to hundreds of thousands of dollars in student loans and small business loans so that they could one day afford to live the good life. That is until America becomes Socialist and there is not incentive for NOT being a lazy piece of shit.

Alright.
STOP.

It appears that I have (yet again) went off on a rant.
I guess what I am trying to say is that not EVERYONE is feeling the recession that we currently are caught up in. Just people who have self-respect and initiative.

The middle and lower classes who WORK are the ones feeling it and the NEW- MONEY UPPER CLASS are going to feel it very soon.
Any way you slice it, the poverty line is going to slowly rise and consume the middle class and the lower echelon of the upper class if we do not start REWARDING PEOPLE FOR HARD WORK and PENALIZING PEOPLE FOR USING MINOR HEALTH OR MENTAL HEALTH PROBLEMS AS AN EXCUSE TO GET OUT OF HOLDING DOWN A JOB.

"I was raised in a poor neighborhood" should no longer be an excuse for applying for public assistance. (They only do it because they can).

In a nutshell, I am saying that we are not in a recession leading toward a depression unless we choose to be.
We are at a crossroads where we must make a decision.
Force people to work with minor disabilities
Force illegal immigrants to LEAVE or NATURALIZE. (This actually will increase our public assistance revenue exponentially without affecting the amount going out because they are already getting it)
Make welfare recepients do SOMETHING or stop the checks from coming in.

It is that easy.


PRODUCE or PERISH.
Which will we choose in quickly approaching 21st Century Depression?
Our answer will decide the fate of the world.

-or-

Body hair will become the new currency and I will finally be RICH :)