Thursday, November 23, 2006

THINGS WE SAY AND CAN'T SAY MEG

SUBTITLE: BLOGGER COMMENTS, MINIMUM WAGE, and OTHER THINGS WORTH NOTING.

Well, the following is a comment I made to an Anonymous Blogger's comment to one of my previous blog comments to a fellow blogger. To clear that statement up, I am going to begin at the beginning.

I wrote a blog entitled: IT IS MORE BLESSED TO RECEIVE. I had a comment by an anonymous blogger who signs her comments, BJ. I responded to her comment. Then I had another comment by another anonymous blogger who signs her comment, Meg. I've tried many times to respond to Meg's comment and others on other blogs I have, but to no avail. Either everyone in the world is blogging today instead of eating Turkey dinner, or beta blogger just hates me. (I even went to another site entirely and tried to comment from that one and it wouldn't let me). So here I am blogging about not being able to comment on my own blogsite. End of explanation to the reason I am writing the following message to Meg:


MEG: This is the tenth time I have tried to respond to your comment,
hon. My blogger comment won't let me blog back for some reason. If
it doesn't work this time, I am going to post a new blog just to comment to you
and others who have contacted me via email.

First, let me say, welcome, Meg. Thanks for dropping in.

I guess all I had to say in my blog, "More Blessed to Receive" was of little
interest. But the comment I made to my friend, BJ captured your thoughts enough
to spark a comment. Glad you did. Though I apologize that it took an
issue of which controversy surrounds to stimulate your visit. Nevertheless, here goes:

Lord help those 7.50 an hour folks, Meg. I am with you. I just bought some lovely
little gifts at Goodwill yesterday. I do my best never to shop at
Wal-mart. Unfortunately, as soon as the minimum wage increases, those making 7.50
an hour will simply be closer to what minimum wage is going to increase to. The increase won't guarantee a person making 7.50 will also get an increase. Indeed not!

Instead, inflation will increase to accomodate the wage increases. Senior coffee will probably go up at McDonald's to 50 cents. Gas will rise again. Postage stamps will be hiked. And price of a candy bar that is smaller than last year's will jump 10%. Manufacturers will raise their prices, (which are already too high in my opinion).

And the business owners and employers will justify their 8% increases with the fact that they had a 3% increase in employee wages. And worse still, the employees still won't have adequate insurance, but the CEO's will be able to take long vacations in Paris and Cayman Islands. And the Corporations will still make generous donations to their
favorite charities which don't benefit their employees one whit--but will enhance public opinion, politicians, lobbyists or spark greater controversy.

What will happen to the $7.50 an hour person? He'll have to do like I do. Give up eating
out. Shop for all clothing at yardsales, Goodwill, and other thrift
stores. He'll have to wash out his coffee filters till they get holes,
reuse the coffee grounds for four or five pots of coffee and eat beans and rice
at least 3 times a week. He'll have to put all those throw-away cameras in a safety deposit box till he saves up enough to get the film developed to make scrapbooks.

And when his back molar breaks and the oral surgeon wants 800
dollars to do a rootcanal, and the dentist wants 600 to do a crown, he'll have
to wait till he has a fullblown abcess in order to get it pulled at the local
"free" dental clinic that operates one day a month to "extract" teeth only.

Then if he lives through that, he can go back to work at 7.50 an hour and maybe even
find another job to offset his pittance of an income.

By the way, if anyone thinks that the immigrants are doing us a favor by taking those minimum wage jobs that no one wants...they are mistaken.

My son owned his own tile business before the good Lord called him home to lay the "streets of gold". He employed a young Mexican fella and paid him 9.00 an hour plus bought him meals and gave him rides with him to work. Then he helped him study to pass his test for citizenship. Often my son was underbid for jobs by contractors
who paid illegal immigrants less than minimum wage and didn't give a flip as to
whether they were illegal or legal.

It's the employers fault that we have the problems today with illegals. And it's the Mexican government's fault that they aren't fixing their own economic issues. And it's NAFTA's fault for taking all our factory-jobs to Mexico and forcing those people to work for nothing so we Americans can get their goods for less because we Americans can't
do anything but want bigger and better Televisions to watch smut on nearly every
one of the 120 stations we subscribe to. (I'm venting now, Meg...not at you, love. You are just an innocent bystander who asked a simple question and threw a little gasoline on my slow cooking charcoal grill.)

And furthermore, it's our (we gluttonous Americans) fault that the playstations across America are in small supply to accomodate our ridiculous "camping out" in front of their stores. Those companies know if they make something bigger and better and only make a few of them, that it will cause a surge in popularity and folks will be standing in long lines, camping out and trampling over each other to get the FIRST ones off the assembly line. (Even if they could get one with ease come December 29th).

We are a "got-to-have-it-now" generation. I know. I've been one of those. I was raised by one of those.

But I don't want it now anymore. I simply want Jesus. And the rest can go where it belongs...in the dump.

Wow...I can't believe your simple little question could stir up so much in my Thankful little mind, Meg. I truly appreciate you stopping by and pray I didn't blow you into next year. Just got carried away. I, too, "need" more money to just get by. But I have all MY needs supplied. If they weren't God would help me out someway. It's my wants that keep tripping me up. Ya know?

p.s. If you come back again, Meg, I promise I won't take a whole blog to answer your question. Unless of course, my stupid comment thingy is still prohibiting me from answering you via the comment section. Happy Thanksgiving! selahV

[copyrighted, 2006, selahV]

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's great that God blesses each of us with talents and gifts that we can take and run with. Thank you for sharing a blog site and your wonderful ablility to write. So keep running the race!
We know the King is Coming!
meg

Anonymous said...

Meg, I've already tried twice to respond to this post. It's about to drive me wacko. Well, here I go again.

Glad I didn't blow you into next year. Sometimes I wonder if my writing is not more of a curse than a blessing. LOL. Amen to the King Coming. What gifts has the Lord blessed you with my sister? SelahV

Anonymous said...

I couldn't be anonymous if I told you!:) My spiritual gift is helping others...a Martha.
meg

Anonymous said...

Meg: You sound like some of my best friends. Helping others. I encourage them to help others. LOL!
selahV