It's the first of the month...

Recently through Facebook, I was alerted to this story and ended up having a spontaneous, friendly and intelligent debate with a friend of mine, albeit on a different friend's wall. That different friend was the original poster of the aforementioned link. Ahhhh, social media. Are you confused yet? Because I certainly am..

Regardless, the debate in question involved two different yet passionate stances on both the Constitutionality and the economic impact of the United States Welfare and Social Services systems.

I awoke the next morning to a beautiful sun in the sky, birds chirping and the occasional cloud surfing through the otherwise baby blue sky..signed into Facebook after organizing my workday, and noticed that not only had the six alerts that chirped throughout the night were digital ghosts, but the entire thread had been deleted!

As if the guillotine of censorship swiftly & surgically cut our collective heads off before the masses could rise up and revolt using our discussion as inspiration! What a farce!

My opinion, succinctly, was that passing a drug test to qualify for "welfare" shouldn't be up for debate, it should simply be "The Way Things Work."
You and I both know "The Way Things Work" - generally, and these are just simple guidelines, folks, these aren't written in stone somewhere in the Middle East. *

Numero Uno: After you graduate school, whether it be high school or any kind of degree from any accredited University you are expected, as is the social norm, to find some kind of employment and contribute to the overall advancement of this beautiful, expansive land we love and live in, the old girl herself, America.

Number Two: After your travels, blunders, and awkward sexual situations that tend to define adolescence (and early, or in my case, TOTAL, life) and what are eventually referred to as your "formative years", after you've grasped 'adulthood' by the stones and secured that corner office with the floor-to-ceiling windows, and cement any semblance of success you've had you (hopefully) are ready to retire - ride off into the sunset, and count your money like the Rich Uncle Pennybags.

This idea is what this county is built on - the pursuit of Life, Liberty, and ultimately the pursuit of happiness. As Ben Affleck said in Boiler Room - "Who ever says money doesn't buy happiness doesn't f*cking have any!"

Capitalism, in a nutshell really.

But there is and has been a drain on this beautiful expanse we call 'home' for over eighty years, both economically, and on in a more subtle assault, the morale of this country. I'm talking about the Social Security Administration.

SSI was enacted by FDR in 1935, a major facet of Roosevelt's "New Deal" program to help catapult this country out of it's worst Depression and into an era of unknown (at the time, anyway) prosperity. FDR's vision of Social Security is commendable, some would even say it embodies the ideals of 'Old Time America.' You know, we'll take your poor, your weak...that whole jazz.

One of the many, and in my opinion, most glaring failures of Social Security is the fact that for over eighty years now a system that was set up in good faith, a system that was set up to help those that are permanently disabled, or veterans of this country who fought valiantly to protect the freedoms that we hold dear (those same freedoms that many Americans take for granted.) has been abused.

Social Security is being abused, I should say. What's worse, is this system is being abused by able-bodied American citizens, people with the ability to contribute to this society (ie: work) but lack the drive to follow through.

This is anecdotal, but in my field (sales), I've come in contact with customers, multiple times, who have told me that they couldn't imagine even trying to work a full time job - their reasoning? Because all of their Government subsidiaries will dry up. Believe me, this is not a case of 'creative license.' This is verbatim what I've heard, multiple times, from different people.

Long story short, I applaud the new measures put in place by Florida, and other states, that essentially hold people accountable for their (lack of) actions. As a working, tax paying American citizen believe it's necessary to plug the drains of our economy. This idea doesn't come from some kind of elitist mentality, but I think reverts back to the values instilled in my brainbox by my loving and doting mother and father from as far back as I can recall.

My parents, above any one else in the world, are my ultimate heroes. I think they even qualify for Superhero status. I mean if there was some sort of application, or at least a guideline sheet to follow they would ace. Those folks are the ones who taught me the value of extremely hard work and that anything worth having is worth whatever hell it takes to achieve it.

I'll get off my soapbox for now, but I'll be back with some more tangential rants sooner than later.

Oh yes, by the way, would you care to know what brought on this tidal wave of incoherent, all-over-the-place ravings of a madman? I looked at a customer's Social Security Awards' letter and said customer receives the same amount I'm taxed a week, per month. If only you could have seen the car they drove in...

But we'll save that for when we have more time.

Resuming Radio Silence...