Anyone that reads my blog knows I'll touch on any subject without reserve. I'd like to say with the government on shutdown that I'm going to write about it, but honestly, I'm sick of politicians and I just can't understand how with more than half of the country wanting the current health law pushed back, Congress and the President exempting themselves from it (this is the big one--if it's good enough for us, it should damn well be good enough for them), and people who depend on the President and Congress to come up with a budget as federal employees...well, suffice to say, yes, I want the people voting against funding that bill to keep doing so, but you still have to pay bills. The fact is both parties are not budging. If the health care law is so in question, they won't use it themselves, then what's wrong with passing something to make sure that Federal employees get paid???? I hate politicians.
So, no this will not be a blog about that mess. Well, not exactly; stay with me here. A few years ago I left South Carolina for a promotion. The promotion was a good opportunity and I thought that it was better for me all around. There were several factors to consider that resulted in the move, but like any decision any of us make, we wittle down our reasons to the top reasons to do something (or not) and finally make a decision.
I decided that my friends, although my friendships are often the lifeblood that keeps me going, were not a factor. I had friends where I was going to be moving, just as I had friends in South Carolina. Truth is that most people don't have friends all over the planet, so most people probably wouldn't be able to risk a move where they had a lot of friends to go where they might have a minimum. But I looked at my friends in both locations as pretty much a little more in the Carolinas, but not by much. So this was "equal" or at least "equal-ish".
My boys education was extremely important to me, and in spite of the best effort of many teachers in South Carolina, their education system sucked compared to most states. Yes, I'm being serious. They were still ranked in the bottom 10% of the nation. Shifting their ranking in the 40s out of the 50 states. That was 7 years ago. Even 5 years ago, while it was evident there were great improvements being made, they still hadn't broken the 30s. This year, though, they are ranked 15th nationwide. In 5 years to go leaps and bounds is great. Of course, a lot of states have seen downgrades because of the serious economic downturn and have had to make major cuts to their public schools' funding. However, SC is no different than any other state. In fact, since a large portion of their income is manufacturing based and a good percentage of that automotive based, the state continued to make education a priority in spite of dwindling funds. Kudos. In fact, the couple states that I've lived in since, which will definately remain nameless, made their first cuts to their education systems and their rankings show it. Enough said about that decision.
While South Carolina is beautiful--the ocean is only 3 and an half hours away from where I was and the mountains are only an hour, hour and an half away, there is always something quite wonderful about the Great Lakes area. If you've never seen the Great Lakes from one of their shores, picture yourself standing on a body of water that rivals the ocean. It's vast. Large ocean freight ships can pass by as you watch and the water level in front of you shows no signs of displacement. If you've ever been to San Francisco or New York City, you can look from SF and see the shores of Oakland across the Bay or from NYC to the shores of Jersey. You can do that with the Great Lakes and see Michigan from Chicago or Canada from the shores of Ohio. But multiply the distance by 3 or 4 times. The oceans can remind us how great the world is and how puny and small we, and our problems, are compared to our planet. But, only the Great Lakes can give that feeling of how puny and small we are as individuals while at the same time reminding us how small the world is. While the Carolinas offer some of the most beautiful terrain and weather in the world. For me, the two compared to each other, at least at the time, were a toss.
Then there was one other thing that I considered. "You're going to meet a lot of new people, move on, and have new opportunities," someone that was very important to me told me. At the time, I had to accept that at face value. I personally didn't care about meeting all those new people or even about the new opportunities, but I had to think about what it meant to stay in South Carolina. Was I limiting myself? Was I making decisions to stay where it ultimately wasn't as good for my boys or me? Maybe I was just obstinate enough to not understand what I really wanted or needed. God knows that I'm not always the brightest light bulb. New people, new opportunities. "A change of scenery can be good for the soul," someone else said to me once. Not sure who honestly; sounded good though and seemed applicable at the time.
Well, let's be frank, in hindsight. Yes, the Great Lakes are still as beautiful as ever. We can never predict the economy, so taking a promotion or not, was a wash. South Carolina was hit pretty hard by the automotive industry downturn as much as the Automotive Corridor. The boys, well, were the schools that important. Yes and no. One of my good friends always says in reference to his wife, "If mama ain't happy, no one's happy." That is definately a life lesson learned. The move to the Great Lakes was good overall, but again, no one can predict (well, at least us average Joes and Janes) the economy. We might be in a thriving industry one moment and be in a terrible place the next. I have friends in the private aircraft industry. The comments made by the current President resulted in several companies that had thrived for decades now barely surviving to just making due as best they can. One private jet company went from employing 35K people in an area to 8K in the year, year and an half after the President's comments. Orders cancelled, and Americans out of work. That industry is still suffering. One of the companies that has been able to mitigate rather well has downsized 300+ salary in just one of their locations because the aircraft industry is suffering still. You just never know. I mean who could've expected President Obama's comments to impact an entire industry so drastically? (Well, you'd expect he'd have advisors that would know better, but I think his inexperience shows through his advisors lack of experience. Alex-ism: "Surround yourself with idiots and you're the idiot.") Regardless, one comment has tanked an industry that was one of the few still thriving after the economy took the major downturn. We just never know what is or isn't going to happen and sometimes we just have to go with what we know at the time.
The main life lesson though is a new Alex-ism. "Good is in your mind and just because you can make the most of it, doesn't necesssarily mean it's good." I was "good" when I moved to the Great Lakes. The opportunity was awesome and I have some very good friends there, but there was a part of me that felt out of place. I remembered a place like what my grandparents had, and well, honestly with almost all of the Silent Generation gone, life there has changed. Not good, not bad, just different. Did anyone else notice? Not sure. It's hard to see a change when it changes gradually around you, kind of like living in a bubble and having no outside visual of what is going on right next to you. I noticed. Can I tell you what changed? Yes, I could run through a list, but it's not the point. It wasn't, nothing ever is, as you or I remember it. I loved some aspects of being there, but well, it wasn't the right place. Just didn't feel right anymore. I made it "good" in my mind, but never felt like it was awesome or great or even that "good". Did I meet a lot of "new" and old people? Yes. Was it all good or all bad? No, some good, some bad. Just a mix that you have anywhere or with anything. New or old, before and after, we always like to assume that we know what's coming from anything, but in truth, we never know. We are guessing. We take a stack of information that we assume will help us make the right decision and we have to go with it. We learn from who we know, what we experience and make decisions based on what information we have gathered up. Often, focusing on the things that we have made the assumptions that they are the most important.
So, the government is in shutdown, and I'm trying to move back to South Carolina. What do these two things have in common? We're in shutdown because two sides of the politicians are doing what they "assume" is right over the healthcare bill, aka. Obamacare or the so-called Affordable Care Act. (No, I'm not a fan overall, obviously. See previous blog if necessary.) Are there pluses with the Affordable Care Act? Yes. One, we can cover our children through advanced degrees--up to 26 years old. In fact, we can cover them even if they are not in school--which is a major change. Sadly though, how crappy has our economy become that a 22 to 26 year old cannot find a job that has their own damn health insurance? And newsflash, only 6% of the American population ever finishes a Master's degree. Yes, 6%. So is that awesome coverage that necessary? Well, yes, when the economy sucks so bad that a 22 to 26 year old can't get a job to support themselves. Second thing I like, women's birth control has to be included in their insurance. Wait, wait. Ummm, I've never had a plan that didn't cover it. In fact, even though I am no longer capable of having children, I still have to pay for that extra coverage because until I hit menopause age I'm still of "child bearing age". So, that does nothing for me. Just like hanging a mirror on a jackass. Might make the ass shiny, but it's still useless both for the ass and anyone using the ass. Those are the main arguments the liberal side is making. The "other side" is saying it's costly and the majority of the American public is opposed to it. Yes, I'm on that side too. I do not want to pay more than double what I already do for a system that isn't working by adding another system that won't likely work anyway. Seriously, think about it. Name one Federal Government "system" that works as prescribed. I can tell you the only one I can think of that works without a whole lot of red tape at least when it comes to taking in money: the IRS. Boy, they've got that thing streamlined to ensure that money is in and accounted for. Oh right, but wait til they audit you. Poor guys working for the IRS. That's not streamlined. There's nothing, and I mean nothing, streamlined, leaned out, working at even a 4 sigma level about our government. Nada, zip, zilch. The problem with the Affordable Care Act is that everyone already knows it's going to cost a fortune--knows it, and the other things, the other ramifications that we are not privy to yet haven't even begun to rear their ugly heads. We only know it's going to cost a fortune and one benefit that everyone can agree on--covering kids until their 26. They're able to vote at 18, die for their country, but they can't be trusted to drink alcohol until their 21 and now we can't trust them to "man up" and take care of themselves until 26. (Oh yes, even though I agree with it, I can definately see a problem.)
So, I'm moving back to South Carolina, because I've learned over the years that it just suits me better. And, pretty much anyone that has insurance from their companies already knows that the so-called Affordable Care Act is not going to suit them better than what they had before that monstrosity of a bill passed. We can talk about all the little pieces that make it sound wonderful, and those pieces just might be awesome and wonderful. But does it really suit us? In the long run, is it really what we need or are we focusing (or being focused) on things that just don't matter to us in the long run? In 5 years from now, do we really want to be paying to maintain Medicaid and the ACA? Once they get that Obamacare system up and running, we will be paying for both. We know our government. They spend money like they can piss it out on command, but it's our money technically, not theirs. Some of it sounds great, but how great is it? The Great Lakes were beautiful; still are beautiful. That ass, government healthcare/assistance aka. Medicaid, is really an ass. But is adding expensive mirrors making it better? A couple of fancy mirrors that are going to cost a lot of money and then stuff we're not even sure we want for one or two things that sound good? Time I move home to the Carolinas. Time some people start thinking about how many mirrors we're going to break trying to dress up that ass.
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