Editorial: Michigan kicks off the protest party

In a logical progression, which I’ve been expecting for some time now, Michigan’s most self entitled have suddenly awoken, up in arms over the new budget being proposed by Rick Snyder.

As I said, this is no surprise to me; I’ve been waiting for it day and night since Wisconsin kicked off the party by slamming unions.

An attack on unions anywhere could challenge the unions nationwide. And nowhere in this nation are unions thicker, dumber, and more obstinate than in the state shaped like a hobo’s glove.

I should know; I’ve lived here my whole life.

I have had the unenviable pleasure of watching our state’s self centered bullshit spiral now for literally decades. I talk with the aged then-70’s revolutionists who are now teaching my state’s youth. I’ve passed by the limestone monuments that the entitlement culture erected to themselves on Detroit’s coastline. I’ve shaken my head for years as their members complained how no business wants them and their unappreciative and rigid demands.

And so, it was inevitable that when this snowball started rolling down the hill, it would eventually blast through Lansing, MI. on its way to Detroit.

From the Detroit FreePress:

LANSING – More rallies are planned at the Capitol this week to protest Gov. Rick Snyder’s budget and tax plans, and labor union leaders warmed up the stage today by denouncing what they called tax breaks for big businesses at the expense of families, seniors and school children.

A rally of seniors Tuesday is to be spearheaded by AARP Michigan, which has arranged nine busloads of 400 seniors. The “It’s not Fair!” rally is certain to focus on Snyder’s proposal to end income tax exemptions on pensions.

Wednesday, another union-led rally is planned, similar to several in recent weeks, the largest a Feb. 26 rally to show sympathy for protesters in Wisconsin opposed to moves there to eliminate collective bargaining rights for state workers.

Nothing here should really surprise you much; same self entitled crap that gets spewed anytime a “sacrosanct” benefit is cut or reduced, anywhere in the country. All the same talking points, even.

However, where the Michigan variation of this culture stands out is in its blatant stupidity and subsequent willingness to phrase obviously ludicrous propositions as if they were matter of fact principles.

Confused? Let’s bring up a later statement of this news article to make my point:

Among those promoting the seniors rally Tuesday is Mary Lee Woodward, 63, of Oxford. She started a Facebook page to drum up opposition on Feb. 17, the same day Snyder unveiled his budget plan.

She said she’s a GM retiree who’s especially angry over his proposal to tax all of her pension.

Okay, so far so good. A Michigan GM retiree who has a tax free pension and thinks she shouldn’t have to pay up. Not notable. But where does this woman stand out, that I would bring her up?

“I bought a new truck and a house,” Woodward said. “If I have to pay tax on my pension, I’m going to lose my truck.”

Did you catch that?

Glossing over what a 63 year old woman is doing buying a house on nothing but a pension, or the fact that plenty of other states in this country do tax pensions, let’s just skip straight to the point where she wants an entire state of almost ten million people to scream to a halt and suffer so that she can keep her brand new fucking-automobile.

And just why is it, then, that if her pension gets taxed she will lose her new car (many people here are losing the home and the car) in the first instance?

Because she, like the distinguishable preponderance of every union member I’ve ever met in my life, is absolutely terrible at budgeting and planning.

They’ve spent their days running their budgets to the hilt – 100%, flat lining, running on empty, burning the motor, spinning the wheels…call it whatever you want. They have zero maneuvering room in their day to day lives. If this were poker, they ante up, every single time.

And if anything goes wrong, they get completely wiped out.

Except, they do it in a way that is completely, terrifying, numbingly afraid of any perception of “risk.” Of their cash flow, which they are spending up dry every single day of every single week of every months, without even a penny to spare, they aren’t even bothering to take gambles that could maybe, possibly pay off.

I mean, if a see a gambler, maybe he hits it big in slots. If I see someone blowing their life savings on speculative penny stocks, at least the potential payout is thousands, tens of thousands, millions even – to one. Sure, they’ll likely lose it all, if not today then tomorrow. But there is that lingering, almost unimaginably imaginable chance that it could happen.

And that’s what’s instead so pathetic about these kinds of people.

Here, you have someone who at every moment could lose it all, so if you even debate changing anything in the slightest (shy of just handing them more money, of course) they immediately jump to charge, claiming you hate them, children, pets, Jesus, what have you…because if they fail and anything deviates AT ALL, then it’s game over.

But the best case situation is that they come out on par.

And they run this gamble in the same world where just this week revolutionaries are burning the Middle East to the ground and Japan gets half of its shoreline crushed by a tsunami.

But the worst part of it is definitely the selfishness; the persistent demand that everyone else drop their own ambition, goals, and dreams to shelter them.

That’s the great irony here; you may not have caught onto it yet, if you live anywhere else. But here, in Michigan, we’ve had the pleasure of seeing this cycle through. Most of the states with overly influential entitlement programs have only been driven to the brink of bankruptcy.

Here in Michigan, on the other hand, we’re bankrupt. Our state’s been in a recession for over a decade, even while the rest of the world enjoyed the bounties of the greatest bull market bubble we’ve ever seen. That angle lets you glimpse what’s going to happen in other, similar situations now being set up across the country.

It’s sort of like tomorrow’s news, today.

So what’s so ironic about entitled people and just how is it that they’re selfish?

Most people who have something have it because they sacrificed for it. They spend sometimes literally decades striving for that goal. And, while they’re striving, they often do so in a state of wanting.

Pampered offspring of the rich aside, I don’t know many successful people who just fell into lavishness. There’s usually a period of time there when they have less than everyone around them.

When you think about it, it’s obvious why.

In order to save up for big plans, the tradeoff is what you have in the moment. And, since ultimately big plans entitle risks that can leave the practitioner without anything they put into those plans, the act of success very much entails being more content with having less. If you aren’t willing to rent and eat lower quality food, forgo those fun thousand dollar toys, the new car, the new furniture, the new…stuff; well then, you’ll likely never make it very far.

So many of the wealthiest people could be by themselves in a modest setting with very few worldly possessions and, while perhaps striving for more, would still be perfectly happy.

If the endless insults against the “unquenchable greed” of the wealthy have ever caused you to hesitate, it is perhaps that you understood this fact. Many of the world’s richest people are also quite sensible.

Not so with the men and women who are out and about protesting today. They aren’t happy unless they have all of their little bronze fantasy. It must be the four new cars, the house, the ten acres of land, the ATV’s and the snowmobiles and the new golf clubs…and the “everything”.

Miss any of it, and they become disgruntled, dissatisfied, discontented. If any piece of it is missing, then they are genuinely unhappy.

And so these kinds of people are both very greedy AND shit ass poor. Which is the worst sort of depravity there is.

And believe me when I say, they use their near poverty as part of their argument. “Why are you just beating up on poor little old me, with only my small house and few cars and couple million friends who are in the same boat?” It’s not like any one of them has anything substantial.

And that is where the irony comes.

What is greed? Is it what a man has?

Or is it what a man can’t live without?

Really, in that both groups grabbed as much as they could without ever genuinely risking themselves and their positions, I see little difference between the kind of greed that was present in the likes of a Stanford or a Madoff and the kind of greed present in the several million twittering union members across this country, unless it’s this:

Sure, Stanford and Madoff sold out. But at least they exchanged their integrity and their soul’s damnation for a lifetime of unequivocal power. Compare that with these budget busting assholes, who’ve sold their integrity for a four bedroom house and a truck.

And in trying to hide their own willingness to keep what they never sacrificed for, along the way of this entire lengthy process, which is just now ensuing, you can expect them to continue trying to label everyone else as more greedy than they.

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