Mid-Week Music - No Union

Song:  No Union

Artist:  Joshua Kanary

We wait for your call by our dead silent phones

We spend all our money just paying our loans

You give us low hours, you give us low pay

And you know we won't fight it 'cuz we can't turn away

We'll work your McDonald's and your midnight shift

We give pleasure and joy to your spoiled kids

You look at our jobs and you scoff and you laugh

But you still eat our Big Macs for a buck and a half

You make us come begging to your office door

When if we were not there you'd shut down your store

Your family would starve and your house would go for sale

'Cuz if you ain't got no workers, your business will fail

We ain't got no union 'cuz we ain't got no job

Our schooling you mock and our futures you rob

We come in the thousands and you pick only one

We got nowhere to stay and nowhere to run

Well, we'll always fight and we'll never back down

From Washington to Maine to Texas on down

With no one to back us, you push us again

But, union or no, we'll fight 'til we win

This week, there were so many unemployment claims in Ohio that both the computer system and the phone system crashed.  I was one of the over 80,000 people this past Monday trying to get through to secure some sort of safety net as I look for a new job.  Happy New Year, Ohio!  Your children are starving.

I was one of the lucky many that got to be told all lines are busy and got to see that Internal Server Error on our computer screens while filing for unemployment.  I almost wish there was no way to file online or over the phone just so America could get the visual picture of 80,000 people spending all of Monday standing in line for unemployment.  Perhaps if we had an actual picture or video of all these people huddled together and shivering in the cold and snow people would finally begin to call this what it is:  a depression.

Although I think people are starting to understand, I still hear and see things that tell me people just don't get it yet.  Specifically, I saw this story from Nightline last night that made me wonder if this Dave Ramsey guy really believed what he was saying or if he was just the poor guy that drew the con straw when the two analysts were picked.  If there are enough people out there that think like this Dave Ramsey guy, we may never get out of this depression.

What scares me the most is when he says, "I'm a capitalist pig.  I'm for just letting this whole thing work itself out."  I've heard similar people say similar things in different words, and it shocks me everytime that someone is actually trying to sell the idea:  "If everybody just sits back and does nothing, I'm sure everything will just fix itself."  There are people out there who need help right now and their situations are not gonna get better by ignoring them.  Something needs to be done and nothing is not a solution.

Socialism often gets brought up in these conversations, but we're not talking about socialism.  We're not talking about the government coming in and taking over industry.  We're not about to see government produced D&D books, Jonas Brothers CD's, and NFL teams.  If too many people lose theirs jobs and their money, there will be no one to buy what is produced, resulting in even more layoffs and unemployment.  It's become a huge domino effect.  The system is collapsing, and if you really believe in capitalism, something must be done to stop it.

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Maude:  We're not talking about "love."  We're talking about S-E-X in front of the C-H-I-L-D-R-E-N.

Krusty:  Sex Cauldron?  I thought they closed that place down!