Letter to the Occupiers, 10/6/11

Let's get a few things straight here, folks. Income-wise, you may be amongst the lower 99% of Americans. That DOES NOT put you into a 99% majority, ideologically. I'm writing this after I got home from work, where I spent a great portion of the day sweating my ass off in the humidity of the Texas gulf coast. I get up and do this five days a week, and half a day on every third Saturday. I make $31.3k per year. I think that gives me a bit of knowledge into what is "the working poor"...so pay attention. For the record, I'm not bitching about my pay, I actually like what I do.

1) YOU DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO A FREE EDUCATION.
You don't even have the right to an education at some arbitrarily-decided upon "reasonable expense". Educators cost money. Facilities cost money. Would you work for nothing? Why would you expect an educator to work for nothing? Is someone supposed to just GIVE you your textbooks? Do they appear out of thin air, or did some guy like me have to put forth his labor in order to make those textbooks?

You have two choices here. You can A) spend your time at a community college for as long as you're able in order to keep costs down, and then take out student loans in order to cover the cost of your university degree. Or you can B) bust your ass, live on Ramen noodles and imitation Dr Pepper while sleeping on someone's couch, and barely survive through college. How important is that degree to you? Are you willing to sacrifice for it?

Or, you could C) do like I did. Learn on your free time. There isn't anything a university can teach you, from a "book-learning" standpoint, that your own personal studying can't teach you. I am a college drop-out. Most of the things I learned in college, knowledge-wise, could have been learned at my local library.

You do not have the right to suggest that someone else must provide you with an education. You could be getting an education RIGHT NOW. Yes, you might have to work at it. Yes, you might go hungry occasionally. Yes, you might have to work humiliating jobs that you hate. How much is it worth to you? You don't have the right to say that men with guns have the authority to take from others, so that you may have the ability go to school on their dime.

2) YOU DO NOT HAVE A RIGHT TO FREE HEALTH CARE.
Doctors cost money. Hospitals have a metric shitload of overhead. The cost of keeping things sterile, alone, is retard expensive. Is it right to charge $8 for an Aspirin? I don't think so...but it's not my Aspirin. It's not YOUR Aspirin, either. Did you go to medical school? Did you run 24hr shifts during an internship? No, you did not. These doctors did. The people who built these hospitals weren't GIVEN the property, they had to purchase it. The nurses had to work their asses off for their certifications. You have no right to take what they built.

If you have a bitch, take it up with state regulatory agencies that prevent competition in the health care field.

3) YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO A "LIVING WAGE".
You have the right to get off your ass and get a job. You have the right to take any job you wish to have...provided there is an employer that will hire you. If you have no job skills, if you have tattoos on your hands and neck, and you have a felony rap sheet, don't expect a six-figure salary unless you've been heavy in the rap game for a decade or more. You haven't earned it. You've fucked off your life. You've made piss-poor choices for yourself. Got a GED, neck tattoos, and an arrest record, and STILL want to make six figures a year without being able to bust a few lines? Get someone to teach you how to weld. You can work 7/12 on a pipeline, one job after another, and do it. But don't even bother if you can't weld, can't pass a piss test, or can't show up to work and put in twice the hours a typical working man puts in. Yes, you're gonna have to work at it.

4) NO ONE GIVES A RAT'S ASS ABOUT DEFORESTATION IN BRAZIL, THE LOSS OF WHALES OFF THE COAST OF JAPAN, OR THAT "GLOBAL WARMING" BS.
Worry about the immediate problems you face. Your water is being poisoned with flouride, your bank is giving you .5% interest on your savings and charging you 15% on a car loan, your government is borrowing money like a crackhead at a convent, and you're on the hook for the interest being paid to the Federal Reserve.

How the flying fuck does whaling, fur coats, the rain forests, bacon cheeseburgers, or hair spray testing play into any of this? What, are you that stupid? You're gonna need those leather boots, kiddo. They're far less likely to blow out on you than those trendy "green" sneakers you're wearing.

5) YOU DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT TO LIVE IN A HOME THAT YOU HAVE NOT PAID FOR.
If you're protesting the illegal foreclosure practices of Bank of America et al, more power to you. If you bought a home and are pissed off because you tried to by a McMansion in the 'burbs and couldn't pay for it because you got laid off, tough shit. It wasn't your home, until you finished paying for it. Until then, it belonged to the bank, because the contract YOU signed said so. Don't like it? Buy a run-down ratshack in the hood, afford the payments, and dream of something better. Fix it up, get more than you paid for it, and call it a day. Otherwise, STFU. And yes, as I type this, I'm sitting in a wood-frame house that my family has owned for half a century. It's a two-bedroom woodframe house that my WWII-vet grandpa purchased for my grandma. I could go broke trying to afford something "better", but do I really need it? Not really. Do you need something "better"? Not really. I see it much like I see people trying to justify purchasing a $15k used car, when a $2k car does the same thing. You're not buying value, you're buying chrome rims and leather seats. What is it that you really NEED?
*******************************************************************************
My point here is, essentially, pretty damned simple. Figure out what you're protesting against. The biggest enemy you face is practically right in front of you. Your congressional representatives, of both parties, are wholly-owned subsidiaries of the special interests that have purchased them.

The Federal Reserve Bank network and the debt it creates, as well as those who profit from it directly, are your biggest problems. They are the ones starting the wars. They are the ones who created the "housing bubble". They are the ones who were "too big to fail", bilking $700+ billions of dollars out of the tax coffers.

But no, you bitch because someone isn't paying you $19/hour to stock the shelves of Kinko's when you've got tattoos on your face, you can't pass a piss test, you can barely spell your name correctly, and you don't know how to tie a half-windsor.

/B/ro, even your "nerdy" classmates who went to college, got engineering degrees, and are making a hundred grand a year are getting fucked right now. As a matter of fact, they're getting fucked harder than you are, because the powers that be are taxing the "slightly more wealthy" at a higher rate than they're taxing me...while the wealthiest 400 Americans pay a tax rate of 18%. You wanna fight? Bitch about the tax code. Bitch about corporate influence on our legislation. Bitch about wars being fought for fun and profit, while our nation's sons and daughters have to go and fight them. Put your might where it's right...