Society's Joke aka "I Wanna Be A Dirty Hippie"

[captain_slinky]

I was up way too late last night watching some stupid documentary about The 60's. One of the Hippies was quoted saying "Work is Society's Big Joke; they force you to do something you don't want to do so that you can afford to come back and do more of that same stuff you don't want to do".

This REALLY hit a nerve in me.

Why do we think that we NEED to have a job in order to live? Regardless of who in our family is "Bringing Home The Bacon", ONE of us has to miss out on at least 9 hours of our life together. Which in turn deprives the other two parts of our Family Unit as well.

The solution is so painfully obvious, it practically HURTS.

But before I present the solution, I should start out by saying that even if khristle and I made TWICE AS MUCH as we make right now, we STILL wouldn't have enough money to advance to "The Next level" of financial independence. But making as much as we do right now, we don't qualify for any type of Financial Assistance.

So the solution, of course, is for neither of us to work.

If we were both unemployed, we'd qualify for ALL SORTS of Government Assistance! You, The Tax Payers, would pay for our food. You'd pay our rent. You'd pay our medical ills. You'd pay for our schooling, where I could learn carpentry, pluming, car repair, electrician skills... everything and anything that could ever go wrong that would require us paying out money to a different person for repairs.

And all this time, we'd get to actually be TOGETHER as a FAMILY instead of eing separated for 9 hours a day so that one of us can be tortured.

I really don't see any reason for either of us to remain employed.

Comments

[collisions.livejournal.com]

I once had a half-written post that was similar - although diametrically opposed - to this one. It was to conclude "I don't see a reason for me to not start voting for Republicans." :P

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Well sure, but you *do* make more than twice what we bring in! No fair!

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Actually, let me clarify that. For folks like *you*, who actually have something IMPORTANT to do and are adequately compensated for your time? Yeah, YOU should go ahead and be part of The Establishment. The Establishment is GOOD for people who do something important! But for those of us who only have the skills and/or motivation to do a job that keeps us teetering within a few hundred dollars of "Broke-Ass Po", why keep sacrificing 1/3rd of our life for something that we could be getting for FREE?

[(Anonymous)]

I've been on unemployment a couple of times, and as I recall it runs out after not too long. I presume you had something else in mind, if you were going to make a lifestyle of it, but I confess I don't know what that actually consists of (having never looked into welfare).

I would echo the comments you see elsewhere in the responses that this may not be the way you want to raise your little one. And, speaking mostly as a workaholic bozo, work doesn't have to be drudgery - it can be a fun way to spend your time as well as make some money. (I have had jobs that were, of course, no fun at all, a topic about which I am sure you know better than I.) If you can do something you enjoy for a living, that's really pretty cool. And I suspect that was the impetus behind your original thought too - "damn it, I enjoy being a dad, I want that to be my living".

Hell, after another kid or two, if you're still enjoying it, consider running a day care :)

[hallerlake.livejournal.com]

That was me - somehow logged myself out

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

I was raised on welfare and let me tell you it sucks. The bureaucracy is nasty. The shame of getting those checks and worse, using food stamps is terrible. And you have no chance of getting out of it if you want. It is a downward spiral. You take a temp side job for a week to make a few extra bucks so you can afford to buy your kid a birthday present? What you make gets counted against your welfare money. Your kid grows up being teased and (in my case) being beaten up for being a welfare baby. It is no life for a child.

Think of what it tells Molly too. "You can do anything you want when you grow up, unless you are unmotivated. Then you get to be on welfare for the rest of your life!"

I would rather put in an honest day's work for the same money as welfare than to ever go back on it again. I don't blame mom. She had 6 kids and a husband who walked out on her for a young, blond, piece of ass. But never for my kid as long as I've got hands and/or feet that still function.

Besides, I can't afford to pay for you. If you decide to go that route I will personally come over there and kick your butt every day until you get a job.

If you want more time for your family to be together, try to come up with some way to be self supportive. Find a way to work at home or be self employed. There are ways to do it. Yes, it might mean you have to take a couple of business classes or do some training. Get an SBA loan and open that store you've been dreaming of all your life. Be smart about it and you can do it and make money.

Volunteering to go on state support is just quitting. Don't give up on yourself so easily. And don't give up on Molly's future by subjecting her to that unless you absolutely have zero nilch nadda other choice.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Being Self Supportive is all part of the "Let's Just Be Hippies" mentality. See, khristle absolutely CAN NOT live without a job, even if it's costing us money for her to go to work every day. She needs the "Security" of a steady pay check, even if that pay check only digs the hole deeper and deepr every 2 weeks. She has the desire to get out of our situation, but not the courage. Every argument of "You have to take risks in order to reap any rewards" and "It takes money to make money" are always met with the same resigned "Yeah, I know..." response and that's the end of the conversation.

I'm tired of banging my head on that particular brick wall :(

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

Don't you have a storage unit full of stuff you are paying for every month? Maybe you should start listing 20 items a day until the thing is empty. Then you will save money on storage fees!

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

That *would* be nice... and that is definitely a plan that we have stated in the past! Unfortunately, our apartment is very cramped and there is no corner or room that is safe from a 16-month-old's grubby paws. She needs to be watched almost CONSTANTLY, giving me a grand total of 2 hours per day for checking e-mail, showering, cooking, cleaning, listing on Ebay and generally trying to keep what little sanity I have left :(

Some day, though... some day she won't be so needy all the time :)

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

It is coming before too long. Don't give up! Caleb actually takes good care of himself for a few hours each day. Nice.

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

On a similar note, after I get moved I'm going to be taking in other people's stuff to sell on eBay for a small commission. I have the time and Caleb is old enough now to entertain himself while I do it. If you aren't able to list your own items, let me know and I'll help you out.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Now THAT sounds like a plan! We're probably talking about a year out or so, right? i mean, new house and all is gona take some time for adjustment, right?

Thanks for the offer! Just let me know when you're ready to take stuff and we'll iron out the commission schedule, if I'm not already up-and-running on ebay myself by then! :)

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

Well if the purchase of this house we want goes through we will be moving in about 2 weeks. Fast. I will then start selling my own stuff come September. So it can be pretty soon. I'm going to be selling a bunch of stuff for some other people too.

I figure I'll have the whole system up and running by the end of September.

The way I'm going to work it is to pay for listing fees with the shipping charge so all I have to do is sell the stuff and then forward the money to you whenever you want it.

There is huge bedroom in the basement that is going to become my eBay room and office. I'm putting in floor to ceiling shelves for packing materials and merchandise. I am going to need to invest in a postage scale I think.

[hallerlake.livejournal.com]

Depending on what sort of commission you're thinking of, I may have a pretty fair inventory of gaming nonsense (RPGs, etc) for you.

Hi, you don't know me, but Captain Slinky does, and can probably attest that I have too much gaming crap :)

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

No such thing as "Too much Gaming Crap"!

However, since everybody has been able to snap me out of "Live Off Da Gubmint" kick and back on to a "Become Self-Sufficient" innitiative, *I* might end up having time to list your crap on Ebay before sasjhwa does!

But of course you'll be keeping *some* stuff, right? 'Cuz can you imagine the proud day when your little one crawls in to your lap with wide-eyes and says "Daddy, YOU had a 16th-level Wizard back in the days of SECOND EDITION?"

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

If I may be so bold as to offer a suggestion for you. Clean up your own storage before digging through someone else's. :-) If you are paying for storage for used things you intend to sell you only lose money on them every time you have to pay the storage fee. Add up how much you have paid to store the stuff versus how much you can actually get for it. Clean the dang thing out. Drop 100 things onto eBay a week if you have to. I'm sure someone will babysit for you, right? Once you are cruising on your own stuff you will be in a better position to take on other people's. You need to be selfish about your own family's needs after all, right? :D

And don't forget to walk 20 minutes a day! And eat your veggies! And don't make that face at me or it will stick!

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Excellent suggestion... it's just so HARD to pass-up selling stuff that's my SPECIALTY on Ebay when I've had such good luck selling similar product for others!

You're right... you should be the one to sell it. Since after all I *will* be binging MY stuf to YOU :D

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

Well you have a while between now and the time I'm set up. I know you have some Kroxigors in need of a new home. ;-)

[hallerlake.livejournal.com]

OK. I'll ping you both once I have some idea of inventory. (Yes, I'm keeping a fair bit of it - but others I figure I'm never going to use, so might as well clear some space.)

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

Well we got the house and should be moving in a couple of weeks. Drop me a line at michael.dyer@comcast.net if you are up for it.

On that note, I'm looking for a copy of Vampire the Masquerade Revised Edition if you have one. :D

[teegin.livejournal.com]

I dunno about your systems here but dude you so should have been Canadian. In the leaf country it is easy to reamain unemployed and the government pays for it all.

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but I'd have to be an Indian wouldn't I?

[nani-ka.livejournal.com]

Since sasjhwa already weighed in on how much DSHS sucks in WA, i'll take the "Dirty Hippie" part, since I was raised by Hippies running wild on Kauai.

Keep in mind my experiences are with the hippies that actually stuck with it through the end of the 70's into the 80's & 90's... These are people who made a decision that the established path was not what they wanted to do. They wanted to get off the grid, leave the system, get closer to the earth & not let established norms dictate who they could be friends with & what they could do with their lives. Most of the hippies I knew ended up owning farms, living close to the earth, managing to (somehow) make a living as artists either through the sale of what they made or through teaching classes.

They'd do stuff like get land & grow their own food, make their own clothes... Going for that self sufficiency thing that you can do when you do it yourself. They'd have that bit towards the back where the pot plants would grow, & when they needed cash they'd either go work construction somewhere for however long they needed, or they'd take the food they didn't eat to the farmer's market & sell it. Or, sell it to your friendly neighborhood health food store owner... a.k.a. Ambrose's Kapuna Natural Foods, a.k.a. my dad's store, among others.

My parents, who always told me they bathed too much to be hippies when i'd ask (talk about a classic parental conversational dodge), went the route of opening a healthfood store (dad) & opening a womens' clothing/children's clothing & toys store (mom), ordering what they needed for personal use & selling the rest of the order off to pay for everything else. My mom sewed aloha shirts & mumu's in the back of the store to sell, my dad made & sold surf boards alongside the healthy food & fresh island produce.

As much a social & political decision to say "Fuckit i'm taking my fate & going home" as just quitting your job.

I really don't think Western Wa is a good place to try to do something like this. Land is too expensive, rent on retail space is too expensive. You could abandon the system & try anyway, but too big of a starting kitty is needed...

Your Ferengi skills are excellent, so if you decided to work the "open a store" angle like my parents, I have faith that you could do it & do it well. So you could be a "Dirty Hippy" if you were so inclined...

[captain-slinky.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Between you and sasjhwa, I've pretty much been able to take myself out of the "Let The System pay me to be alive" mode and get firmly back in to the "Open a store and become self sufficient" mode :)

[sasjhwa.livejournal.com]

Well if you are going to drop off the grid Kauai is certainly a lot more fun than Washington! :D