I experienced this phenomenon recently with a coworker. A professional making six-figures, he’s supporting Obama for a single issue: health care. He has a younger perpetually unemployed sister (but Ivy League educated – “volunteering” occupies too much time for her to be able to find work that fits around her society-changing schedule) who discovered she has some serious medical problems. Lacking a health care policy (but living in a decent apartment with family money), she now has some serious bills to face and a pre-existing condition. My coworker believes “the government” (c’est moi) has the obligation to provide for her health care services – it is a right no different than those in the constitution.
When I asked if she had a HDTV, my coworker was incensed at my lack of sensitivity and our friendship threatened. I found it somewhat perplexing that my wealthy coworker (who certainly meets Obama’s recent $150K definition and combined with his wives earnings, meets the $250K standard) and his family funded his sister’s lifestyle but not basics, and sought me to provide for her basics. In our family, we lack the HDTV, PSP, ATVs our neighbors have, drive two paid-off cars, but sink our money in healthcare policies, 401Ks, 529s for the kids college savings and IRAs to the max.
I’m constantly pissed off at the grocery store when staples are bought with the state food stamp card, followed by movie rentals, lotto tickets, beer and cigarettes with “their” money. Now with Obama, we’re lumping health care and retirement into that welfare model? Obama 2008: What’s yours is mine.
