The Real World

Mine Vs. Others

Have you ever seen those reality shows?  We must be getting Bravo free for a bit, so I thought I'd tune into some of those housewives shows.  It just stuns me what their reality is compared to ours.  The stuff they worry about and stress about are so stupid and frivolous.  Money or not, I'd like to know if their 'lives' are real.  Do wealthy really have that low of an existence as some of these people on reality shows portray?  Sure they seem to love their kids, etc. but they make their lives so much more complicated than they need to be.  Of course, I'm sure there are plenty of people like that in every social class.

I guess I just spend so much time worrying about where this world is going  for my children and grandchildren.  Is there going to be anything left to save?  I wish I had an answer to how to fix the problems of today.  I wish I had an answer to how the middle class is going to survive without getting crushed into the poorer classes.  And I wish I had an answer on how to get the poorer classes up and handling things better on their own, for the ones who want to.  There are too many that fall through the cracks in our society and too many that take advantage of the cracks they seep into to get what they 'deserve'. 

I wish there were a way to link up social security numbers.  If you partake in social welfare of any sort, disability or otherwise, then you should sign over the government's ability to verify your accounts and holdings.  If anything is dependent on your assets and income then there should be proof.  Instead, it's left to social workers that there are not enough of and they are left to take the participant's word for it.  Yes, if they lie, then they're in trouble, but the truth of it is they don't have time to verify anything.  If these verifications were computerized we wouldn't have those same worries.

I know some don't believe government should have too much control, but if you want free government aid then you have to give up some liberties.  That would leave more funding for the truly needy.  And no, if they put assets, etc. in someone else's name it's going to be hard to verify anything, but they'd have to go through a lot of trouble to hide it at least.  It's better than the way it is now.  I don't understand the mentality of them 'owing' it to you.  I really don't.

I know right now, you're thinking what does the first paragraph have to do with any of the others.  My point is that I wonder if this isn't why we're in this predicament.  Too many people getting upset, worried and dramatizing petty things in life instead of the things that matter.  We've lost some of the important things that used to be taught to our kids and substituted them for the great American dream of having it all and more.  I've said it before and I'll say it a million times over.  As long as we can pay our bills, keep our children healthy, love each other and teach the kids to be good and caring people this is all I want for my success in life.  My kids are thankful for the smallest things and that makes me proud.  We can take free passes and take them to the pool for a couple of hours and get thank yous from them.  We hope to keep them on that track. 

We're not perfect parents, by any means, but how will it do any good if there are so few out there, or so it seems, keeping their children in reality?