When the levee broke

You have to be of a certain age (early to mid-forties and older) to remember that there was a time when...

• There was no risky 401k plan to aid your retirement years--you had a guanteed pension.
• Your contribution to your health care expenses...was a big fat zero.  That's right--your employer covered it all.
• If you did a good job, you got a raise every year.  And it was usually better than the rate of inflation, to a point where your family could actually get a little bit ahead every year.
• You had plenty of co-workers--there were actually three people to do three people's jobs, not one.

And then came the infamous decision by Ronald "The Great Fucking Idiot" Reagan to fire the striking air traffic controllers and destroy their union (PATCO).  It's been all downhill for the American worker ever since the day, thirty years ago this month.  Corporations have basically taken the tack since that all workers are expendable, that they can be broken (bullshit--I've been doing my job for thirty years and I will flat guarantee you that I can fuck over my employers in ways they've never imagined and not by doing anything that could get me fired), that they can be underpaid and overworked, that they should be thankful they have a job and shut the fuck up.  It was Mr. Reagan's cavalier decision that led to the explosion in income equality, that began the erosion of the middle class, that brought on an America where 25% of our children now live in poverty.  The only people helped by Reagan's actions were the wealthy and mega corporations.

And republicans lionize this man?  Want to know my thoughts when Mr. Reagan passed away?

          "Good--now the mother fucker is rotting in hell where he belongs."

Thirty years.  Don't know when, don't know who, but someday some bright young man or woman is going to lead the charge to start those of us in the working class on the road back to prosperity, and we can look back on Mr. Reagan's actions as an embarrassment of American history.

Peace,
emaycee