Yellowriter

I was just sitting on the back porch watching the rain come down.  Rain is something we haven’t had much of this summer so it was a welcome sight.  With coffee cups in hand, Annie and I watched the drops bounce off of the deck as our thoughts and conversation turned to Fall.  Summer, in all of it’s northwest glory is starting to wave goodbye and we are returning the gesture.

One of the things that I have had the time to do since retirement is think.  I’m not talking about the balancing of the checkbook type of thinking.  What I am referring to is pondering.  I sit and stew over items in my mind.  I come up with some surprising notions and I like the fact that I can still surprise myself, mentally at least.  We played tennis with our neighbors, Carla and Homer, yesterday and I can say that I surprised myself this morning, physically, hurting in places that I had forgotten existed!  Back to the point, Powers! 

One of the things that is on my mind is National Health Care.  It is front page news.  Everyone seems to be riled up over the topic.  I got some coffee, sat down and pondered.  That is what retired guys do - they ponder.  It occurred to me that a national plan is logical because it solves one of America’s most pressing problems without addressing it directly.  It solves our illegal immigration population (and subsequent health care financial support for this mass) by giving health care to all Americans.  If you are an illegal and your child gets very sick you can still get free treatment at any emergency room.  The bad news is that because you don’t have a government health care card, INS agents will be there to escort you and your family out of the country when your child is well again.  In five years everyone who doesn’t legally belong here will be ousted from the borders.  National Health Care solves our biggest problem and California’s, paying medical bills for people who don’t belong here.

I can see the racist accusations being formulated.  You see, us retired ponderers see this stuff coming!  It is not a race issue at all.  This is one for the beancounters, my friend.  Just crunch the numbers.  With the cost of health care soaring to record heights, no state or country has the money to pay for millions who cannot pay for themselves.  Just look at California’s record deficit.  They just raised state income tax again and the user fees from everything to water to streetlights to property tax are being escalated on the shrinking (and leaving) middle class.  It doesn’t work in the ledger books and it doesn’t walk in shoe leather.  Something has to give and National Health Care fills the bill quite nicely.

The unions love it as well.  The price of cheap labor just went up.  What a revelation on the last weekend of summer!  The trade off is something we don’t want to talk about.  The $45 an hour aerospace job is gone.  My brother-in-law is one who had that job.  His Southern California existance is being threatened as his unemployment benefits run out.  His house may be repossessed, but still he waits for the call from the big job boys, as do so many others.  Nationally, we are in a state of denial.  Mary, my dad’s girlfriend, asked me when the economy will be turned around again.  I told her about the state of denial and said, “When the $45 an hour former aerospace worker accepts his/her fate and accepts the long-term position as a manager of a fast food restaurant, we are back on track.”  The big money days are over, folks.

So are we becoming Canada?  Yes and no.  America will still have a class of wealthy elite that play by different rules than the masses, but for the first time in history kids in America will not surpass their parents in economic prosperity as a group.  Sure, they’ll be success stories - this is the land of opportunity, but they’ll be far and few between.  College graduates will be mowing lawns and working in mini marts.  The times, they are a-changing!

So how will this affect your plans?  Just grab your cup and watch the rain.  Spend some time thinking.  Join the Ponderer’s Club.  There is no fee to join and a lifetime membership is guaranteed.  I plan to ponder (after I clean the fountain in the back yard) and then I’ll make an afternoon resolution - no labor on Labor Day!  Look, it’s raining again.