Capitalists? Communists? No jobs does not for a second mean that that there is no work to be done.

[ThomWV]

The color is changing from green to blue, I am moving into a rage. The more I see, the more I understand, the madder I get.

Its been raining like cats and dogs here for the last several days. The ground is saturated and runoff courses down the roads. That can be a real problem out here in the country.

My nearest neighbor, Bunk, drove down the road to get his morning quart of beer not long after it got light. I was walking to get rid of the night's soarness and also to give my dog (Albert) some relief on this eve of the worst hunting day. Bunk's driveway had washed out and while he was able to get his truck out OK the same wasn't true for his daughters', wife's, and son-in-law's cars. As usual Bunk was screwed again.

So Bunk went on to town and me and the dog did our thing and after a while I went back to the house. My son, daughter-in-law, and grandson are living with us now, they have been for several months. My son was up when I got back and I asked him if he'd mind firing up our Loader/backhoe and going up to Bunk's place to see what he could do to fix the road. I'd have done it myself but circumstance doesn't allow the effort right now. So my son fired up the machine and went up the road to see what he could do. He was back in a little over an hour and reported that the driveway was fixed well enough for them to use it for now but he'd go back up saturday morning and clean it up. Then he dried off and he and his son had little bit of breakfast.

Nothing remarkable about it. End of story, right?

Well hell no that's not the end of the story. My son, who only recently became one of the gainfully employed, certainly didn't charge our neighbor anything for helping him out; to do so would have been not only reprehensible but unthinkable. Bunk got back home just as my son was finishing up and thanked the hell out of him for diverting the runoff and refilling the gully that had formed. And that heart-felt thanks was all the payment that was necessary.

Just because a person is unemployed does not mean that there is not work to be done. Just because work is done does not mean that money has to change hands. I own that front-end-loader and backhoe, they are not toys they are privately held capital equipment, the very basis of our nation's economy. What was done with them this morning was not communism, I still own the capital equipment. What happened this morning was not welfare nor was it a hand-out in any sense of the word.

Do you see where I am going? The problem in this country is not that the people are not willing to work. The problem in this country is not that there is no work to do. The problem in this country is not that the equipment, systems, and other resources needed to do good works are not available.

The problem in this country is that we have been fooled into thinking that there is nothing to be done, that out of work must mean that there is no work to be done, no needs to be satisfied, no means by which our communities might be improved. We have been bamboozled, we have been lied to, we have been cheapened, and worst of all we have been convinced that unless some overlord benefits from our labor that no good is being done or even could be done.

We have been pushed into a framework were we can't understand the value of our own capabilities. When the plant shuts down the welder is out of work, no matter how much welding needs to be done. Why is that. Is it because if the plant owner can't make any money then the job is not worth doing? I don't think so.

End of rant.