And one other thing: the “working classes” ARE the middle and upper classes.
I make over $200K/year running my own business. I’ve been at it for over 14 years, started with nothing, made enormous personal and financial sacrifices, and I continue to work 60+ hours per week, every week. Show me any union thug that does the same things.
Good for you. You were blessed with the talent to back up your hard work. There are others who work hard but they don’t have the ability you do. They will never rise to your financial level because they simply don’t have your talent. They are also worthy of respect.
I drive 1-1/2 to 2 hrs to get to work and 1 hr home.
I work 6 days a week 10 hrs a day.
OFTEN 12 hr days and fairly often 7 days a week.
Currently 6 days at 12 hours and every other Sunday.
Occaisionally I have to put in 14, 15 or 16 hr days. And a handful of times I've put in 24+. I've worked a week at 16 hr days.
I've worked 200' up on a blast furnace in January when it was literally 1° with wind blowing 30 mph.
Last year, I worked at a steel mill, where it was 95° outside and about 110° inside. This while wearing a fire retardant jumpsuit over work clothes. After 7 hours of working, I had a weld to do about 6" off the deck. I was laying on the deck to get the weld, but couldn't get it with my one hand, so I switched the stinger into the other, and instantly got LIT UP. My gloves, after a day of working, were soaked, ALMOST as if I had put my hands in a 5 gallon bucket of water. 2 days later, when I got out of the hospital, the clothes I had on were as If they had been in the wash machine and came out of the spin cycle. Water or sweat on steel makes a great conductor.
By the way. The contractor I worked for last year, when that happened, just called me yesterday, to see if I was available to come back to them.
Though I won't make 200k this year, I very well can over the next 12 months.
So there are union "thugs" that make 200k and put in the hrs to do it. I only mention this because not all union "thugs" are thugs or slugs. Some of us have the view of doing whatever it takes to get the job done. That "job" being either the job or life.
Now on the other hand, I have relatives who think I'm rich. They complain about their jobs, but refuse to do anything to improve themselves. I have 2nd and 3rd cousins who talk about getting Drs to declare them disabled, because their backs or knees hurt...WAAAAAAH!!!. Maybe if they got off their lazy a$$e$ and do something and lost weight, they wouldn't have "the pain".
My one cousin was complaining 1 time, to anyone who'd listen, that she had 2 jobs, and that her one job called her in to work the ONE day she had off. Like it was a badge of courage. After hearing this about literally 5-6 times in about as many hours. I asked how many hours she worked in those 7 days? She said 42.
Yes...2 jobs, 7 days...42 hours.
She thought that it was HUGE that she worked 42 hrs in 1 week.
I asked about how much she worked in the last month. She didn't know, but we figured about 150 hours.
I was on vacation at the time, and had just gotten done working 86 days out of 90. And my last week was 84 hours, twice what she did, plus my 2+ hr, roundtrip commute every day, vs her 15-20 minute drive one way. I figured I had worked about 336 hours in the last 4 weeks. She then had to tell me how hard her job was. One was washing dishes in a restaurant, the other working for a landscape nursery. I asked her "you do realize what I do, don't you?" She then had to go into detail how hard her job was, and the injustices involved.
Virtually all my cousins are borderline foreclosure.
One cousin, cosigned for a car for their daughter (Who is a fat, lazy slug, who wants disability). She had worked at McDonalds for about 2-3 months at the time. Her first job...at 21. She only had a few complete weeks of work, as there were all types of reasons and excuses. So she gets a 3 or 4 year old Grand Am, nice car. Shortly after, she got "laid off" and "couldn't get" another job. (More like didn't want another job)
So after a few months of no car payments, the loan company somehow had the car turned off. Must have had Onstar on it. So this girl and her friends decided to kick and beat on the "stupid" car.
The car was repoed, at which point my cousins "assumed" that since the loan company took the car back, they no longer owe for it. No matter how you explain things, they just don't "feel" they are at fault, and shouldn't owe anything.
That same cousin, about 5 years ago, raided their 401k to prevent their house from being forclosed. They also took out enough money to buy a cheap aluminum fishing boat, and a very used camping trailer. They just wanted things like others have (except of course the "rich" cousin).
Two years later, they're complaining how they can't afford their house, and wish it would just burn down. This after the car loan fiasco, and trying to tell them they'd still have to pay for the house.
Well you'll never guess what happened to the house last year.
Of course they are just victims.
Maybe I ought to tell you, my cousin has never had a real job her entire life (she's 49), she's always taken care of somebody's kids. Usually a family member. And could have made more working at McDonalds.
(She told me one time that she'd never work at McDonalds, that was for losers, and that they don't pay enough)
It would be one thing if these were just isolated incidents, but they aren't. And it would be another if these were isolated people, but they aren't.
Around my cousins, there are MANY, MANY people with this same mentality. 300 miles away, my friends have a moving company, and it seems that most (not all) of the people they get working for them, have a similar type of outlook.
Then if you watch shows on CMT about rednecks, you find out that there are people ALL OVER this country that have outlooks similar to these.
There are people all over who work very hard. But there are people, who no matter how hard they work, make bad choices in life. Also there are people who work very hard JUST trying to make good or right choices.
Some of this is what is called common sense, the rest is called wisdom. Wisdom doesn't just happen. Wisdom requires hard work.
Its the people who not only work hard, but live with common sense and wisdom, who are successful.