This recession is not good for the working man

I’m just gonna channel Ron Burgundy and throw this out there. If you like it, you can take it, and if you don’t, go ahead and throw it back. This recession is not good for the working man. This was not the conclusion I initially came to when considering this issue, nor did it come easily to me, but it did, and there’s no turning back.

For months, I had been thinking that this recession helped Barack get elected and that was good for the working man, and that gas is cheaper now, so that was good for the working man, and that McDonalds is making lattes now and that was VERY good for the working man, and all of these pluses added up to a pretty convincing argument that the recession was good for the working man.

However, as I began to dig deeper and drink less, I found the dirty little secret-the cloud between the silver-lining. A recession meant that people were getting laid off and that businesses were not in a position to hire, with the result being that a great number of people were out of a job. At first glance, this doesn’t sound that bad. Vacations are great. Seven-day weekends are even better. What you don’t hear, what nobody tells you, is that if people don’t work, they don’t get paid. If they don’t get paid, they can’t buy things like food and clothes for themselves or their families. We can’t have naked starving people running through the streets. Further, some people out of work might have problems making mortgage or rent payments and get kicked out of their place. I’m not sure if you’ve ever tried it, but homelessness blows. So while I considered the arguments of the other side, I eventually came to the conclusion that, because this recession put a huge number of people out of work, and being out of work sucks, this recession sucks.

My three New Year’s Resolutions this year were to join a yoga class, limit my sodium intake, and be more positive than I had been in the past. While I never even made a token attempt to do the first two things, I’ve really tried to stay positive. Unfortunately, circumstances dictate that I write my conscience. It is with a heavy heart that I declare that this recession is not good for the working man.