Greek Life: Waste of Space or a Worthwhile Venture

today i'm going to tackle one of the existing institutions that irks me the most, aside from government getting nosy in everyone's business. greek life.

i've always thought about it now and then. i came from an all girls high school so its only natural for me to desire that kind of sisterhood again. but today, my train of thought started in my electronic marketing class. i was sitting behind a row of girls that were obviously sorority sisters. as i watched, envious of the camaraderie, they giggled and gossiped and rearranged their ever glamorous hair. i was wondering what it was about sorority girls that transformed their hair to glossy locks of love when i realized something, only one of the four girls had gorgeous hair. one had a rather mousy brown hair that was even thinner than mine, another had vigorously fried her hair to resemble a stick like shape, and the other had okay hair. nothing special.

it reminded me of a comment my friend john had once said about cheerleaders: "they're so hot in a group, but if you look closely, a good amount of them are kind of gross". it must be the strength in numbers that fools you initially.

while i acknowledge cheerleaders as athletes (i could never make those flips), cheerleaders and sorority girls are on the same level in that society has set them in this category titled: Hot Women. therefore john's insightful statement applies to both.

why is the world obsessed with them? and when i say them i don't mean just sorority girls, i mean the whole greek system. they are considered the american ideal, the happiest of the happy. girls talk of going to college, joining a sorority and finding a perfect fraternity boyfriend. when ashton kutcher goes back in time to save kayleigh from being molested by her twisted father and brother, he wakes up to find a changed present that has him and her living the greek life.

so why do we idealize them?

taking a closer look at these institutions and clubs, they are founded on principles of honor, charity, fidelity, and all those other lovely words that have, more or less, become categorized as archaic in college life. unless you're overtly religious but that makes you a different breed of human entirely.

going back to the beginning they were founded with rather pompous sounding words but now the greek life as evolved into something less than honorable. i do know diehard greeks who stick to their beliefs, insisting that there is good at the heart of greek life. they point to the philanthropy and they have a point there. but does that counter numerous problems with hazing, alcohol poisoning, and all around self entitled attitudes that are negatively associated with greek life?

some people call it buying friends. in fact most people that i know who are not in greek life call it that. if there are people out there buying friends, that is just sad. and for fraternities and sororities to take money from kids that they don't even like, thats even more pathetic. but ive seen too many kids with stars in their eyes about their new 'family' to really 'buy' that explanation for this phenomenon (my boyfriend, to name one).

they must really love what they do.

for one thing, the brotherhood and sisterhood stuff is actually addicting. coming from an all girls high school, we had that kind of obsession with being awesome and putting down other all girls schools in the area. my class, even though we started out as ridiculously deformed and disjointed, ended up as really tight. it's a feeling that i'm sure all of us will relish.

another would be the public's perception. despite negative imagery and constant slurs from GDIs (god damned independents) as myself, they have been branded for life as the all-american image. good ol' boys join fraternities to become

this will have to be finished as dinner calls. food>greek life musings

Tomorrow is the first day of the rest of your life

well by all counts and technicalities, it would be today, since its 12:40

the rest of my life is unceremoniously starting with me lazing on my grubby college couch and blogging about my emo tendencies. i can't help it, old habits die hard. especially seeing how i took a million years to delete my xanga account that detailed every bit on nonsense that ever happened in high school.

bye bye, childhood memories. your embarrassingly juvenile, yet touchingly honest entries will be missed.

i've spent my last week quite literally talking about the rest of my life. im not going to lie, it hit me as a surprise. i can't tell you how stupid i feel that i let it sneak up on me like that. i can't believe i thought life would kind of just work itself out for me. thats not really how its works and i believe my mother has been telling me that since i came out of her womb.

congratulations, mother. you've been right for the past 20 years. you should cherish this moment, i won't let it happen again.

but with the return of all my overachieving acquaintances, they have unknowingly shoved in my face that i have no plan for my life. thus rendering me feeling helpless and a tad lost.

let me take a step back, i can explain this idiotic oversight, i swear.

it starts in middle school when i had mediocre grades and even worse friends. Cs were a regular occurrence, despite quarterly threats from my parents of being disowned. and my friends were the weirdest kids in the class. i somehow perfected my socially awkward radar into a machine that collected all the misfit toys from the class of 2003 of st.e's. then, i don't know how, but i made the connection that the grades that i could make had to do with the friends that i could make. the smarter my friends, the better my grades. it did occur to me that my grades could somehow be generated on my own but this plan was so genius i figured i would never need to.

so starting in high school i rode off the coattails of my smarter friends. i never really had to apply myself as i somehow developed an air of being effortlessly smart. the more my friends trusted me, the better my confidence became, and the more i trusted myself to pick up all the important information from class instead of hours of studying at home. i also absorbed a lot of dumb discussions and managed to make it out on top, coming up with the correct conclusion.

see, what people don't get, is that the measurement of success doesn't come from one-liners. its from the discussion that came to that conclusion. to have the initiative to ask the right questions and tenacity to pursue, you're the right combination of success. by listening and absorbing, i was letting my classmates do all the work. i could even fool myself but watching the years slip away as the chasm between the truly intelligent and useful, and myself, grow wider, its simply depressing.

in college, i failed to understand that this was different from high school. teachers would not give meaningful lectures and the competitive students would not simply share their knowledge without an added measure of scorn. of all the things that are essential to being asian (like being good at math and aceing the SAT) i inherited the single most worthless trait, a serious sense of pride. the prouder i was, the less i asked for help, and the more i am singlehandedly cutting myself off from a promising future. so i joined QUEST, an honors program for overachievers. there was just one problem- i'm not an overacheiver. i could wear a suit, smile, and make a powerpoint to fit in, but there was no way i was simply absorbing all the brilliance of these kids. i don't even know why i tried. obviously, this method was too good to be true if these kids have offers to PWC, deloitte, booz allen, and other prestigious firms and i could only find an internship when my boyfriend pulled strings.

putting myself in QUEST was the one thing that made my college years bearable but now it seems as though the benchmarking may be the death of my confidence and therefore the death of me.

i have no real conclusion, just that i needed to put this out there. i still don't have a clear picture of the rest of my life, i see hazy figures getting married and having babies but i suppose my subconscious is too freaked out to add a hint of a career in the mix. i'll come back to this once i figure it out.

which may or may not be...oh, never.

Musings From My Last Day

My day quite literally began with a bang. And although its not yet the end of the day, neither is the mood a whimper, it’s a far cry from the ferocious thunder that tricked a groggy me into thinking our nation’s capital was under attack.

Not a joke. I was genuinely scared.

I woke up to resounding crack from the skies followed by a good sized pause and then thundering rain that threatened the trees in the yard with its intensity. It was almost like the rain man in the sky had left for vacation, leaving in his place a novice DJ who still didn’t know how to blend his tracks properly, leaving too much silence in between the last song and bringing in the next song at a volume much too loud to be smooth.

The storm was so fierce that my weather persevering father, always ready to brave the blizzards for Sunday Mass (and inevitably getting stuck on the way there AND back), already headed to work, turned right around and came home to wait out the rest of the storm.

After that extravagant statement by Nature (one of many this month) the storm quieted down and I was able to head to work where I did…nothing. Tomorrow is my last day, so I’m wrapping up my two projects. I finished proofreading my chart of toss up candidates and their stances on hot button issues. Now that I think about it, I could have done it faster, and better in excel and following a different template. But whatever, I’m almost out of here. And then I sat down to try and edit the stupid CIGNA PAC page. I sent a few emails to get the process going, left to do a little lunchtime shopping (couldn’t help it, its family appreciation time again at urban outfitters) and came back to find the issue becoming stagnant. With my new found courage (I mean, its so impersonal with email that I don’t mind extra prodding to get things done, unlike my timid real self) I used some strong language to get the issue going again. It took emailing back and forth with the IT guy all day to find out that I hadn’t been given editing rights to the page.

Fabulous.

So now I’m kind of just loafing around here, waiting for Bill to get off the phone so I can consult him on what to do.

My day has more or less been blah. Or as Mr. Swope would have said, it’s slow as molasses going uphill. This is only weird because most days I don’t have anything to do, yet I find time slowly but surely slipping away to free me around 5pm. Today its like time is slowly, but not quite surely passing. Maybe even going backwards at points. TV holds no interest for me. Political articles on realclearpolitics.com seem to be partisan to the extreme today, holding less and less of my interest as I read more of them. Freecell’s lost its charm (no surprise there, I play it every night). And even the novelty of bringing my new Zune to work for my daily dose of country lost its appeal about two hours in when I looked at the rapidly dwindling battery and realized I should save it for the ride home.

My only highlight of the day (other than the quick shopping trip) is my occasional blog entry. On some days it’s because I’m really riled up. Other days, like today, its really only because I like hearing my fingers clack on the keyboard, making me sound much more productive than I really am.

So I’m in a slump, one of those moods where I’m borderline. Don’t ask me borderline what, I don’t quite know. But it’s the in between where I could be heading into a tailspin of misery over annual loss of my boyfriend. Or I could just as well go home and hit that euphoric high over finding a shirt that really and truly looks fabulous on me.

Whatever the outcome, I hate the in between moods. Hate is a strong word. I indifferently dislike it. I don’t have enough energy to push me out of the mood to have definitive feelings about it but it’s not positive.

Even writing about it has made me too indifferent to devise a clever, or even point making conclusion.

I’m in with a bang, out with a whimper.

p.s.- t minus 3 days until I’m on that delicious, sun kissed strip of land called the OBX. Thankyoubabyjesus

God and the Government... They Won't Just Fix Things Because You Want Them To

(one because He won't, the other because...well, they can't)

I’ve been sitting in this office for about 5 weeks. This will in fact be the end of my 5^th week at which my internship will come to a close.

While I’ve been sitting here, I’ve carved out a little routine for myself, in a job that was made up and a position that isn’t really necessary. They’re throwing away 4k for me to sit here for 5 weeks and do not quite menial tasks that are, in the end, worthless to the corporation. But they have the money and they don’t seem to mind so neither do I. I tell everyone my job requires me to work on two tasks, to revamp the CIGNA PAC page on the intranet, and to research the candidates for the turnover House seats in the November elections.

And I have, somewhat. I’ve compiled a list of all the candidates for the turnover seats, listed their positions on major issues. I’ve taken my time doing research about PACs in general, looking into their history, public sentiments, and recent litigation.

But what I’ve been doing, that takes up the majority of my time, is read each and every single article posted on realclearpolitics.com every day. Not because I want to read a lot (some days the content is so heavy, I feel like my head is going to burst when I leave) but because I want to be educated about politics and current events that are relevant (so things that happen inside the US. I am unconcerned with Putin putting out forest fires on the other side of the globe but Pakistan has actually distracted me for the better part of a week now).

For the most part, without a firm background in politics or even politically inclined parents to guide you, it’s rather difficult to simply jump into the political arena and make it on virtue of intelligence alone. You have to have a working knowledge of the recent history of politics and an extended history is useful as well.

When I dived into this ring, I had no idea who Newt Gingrich was, what political affiliation was Clinton’s Congress, and why the federal deficit is a troubling matter.

I have since learned all of those essentials, as well as a number of other facts and figures that are a must have. I believe that the amount of information that I’ve absorbed enables me to mostly understand and not yet postulate theories or impose an unfounded opinion on the general public. Ironic, I know, that I’m writing this out for everyone to see. But I’ve got to start thinking somewhere. Another side effect of constant political intake, I’ve grown accustomed to certain types of political print, know when to discredit one for being too far leaning one way or another, and (to my dismay) to begin rolling my eyes at the mention of Paul Krugman.

That last part I try to restrain myself but due to my mildly conservative identities, his unending attacks on the right is just too much for some days. But there you have it, I take in politics with an open mind and end with so much information that I’m partly closing the door on some people.

Another side effect is that I have indeed begun picking political alliances. Now I mention that I was mildly conservative before. I say that because its what I’ve been saying all my life. The only issue I’ve ever been invested in is the pro-life campaign. I’m a fierce pro-lifer, signing petitions and letters galore, marching on Congress in the largest peaceful protest in America, and dutifully praying for those poor unborn children and their mothers.

When I say sides, I don’t mean Democratic or Republican. Going through the turnover candidates and their ‘labels’ have taught me that much. A so called Democrat can be way more conservative than his Republican counterpart. A so called Blue Dog Democrat (which you think would be more conservative than most) could end up siding with 98% of Nancy Pelosi’s agenda and be one of the closest Congressman to Obama. I haven’t seen very many Republicans go liberal with the agenda while remaining Republican. Mostly they just switch sides for good, in an effort of ‘bipartisanship’.

What really matters in the political area is not your label (only stupid people vote for labels, and yes, we’ve got an alarming amount of those in this country) but where you stand on the political spectrum. And I’ve found that I stand a little further right than I thought.

Not because I don’t want to do good in this world, like the liberals and their generous, blank check agendas. I’m a Catholic who tries to do good by the world, periodically donating food, clothing, and what money I can part with from my college student’s small funds. I volunteer at a non-profit, fair trade store that sells handmade crafts from third world countries. I could certainly do more, but I do what I can to help those around me, both near and far.

Neither do I want to be painted with that brush of fat conservatives who just want to hold on to their money and be left alone. I for one, could certainly hold on to more money from my paycheck. Its devastating to have to calculate that bit of money (a fraction to you, practically a fortune to me) out of my salary every time but I do because I have to. I do it because I support the education system and better roads, and even though I have my doubts about the efficiency of the PG County police force, I know life is safer with them than without.

I’ve been rambling. I apologize.

Getting to the point, I believe in a smaller federal government role. These days, federal involvement has been all the rage and I think that’s inappropriate. The federal government is there to carry out Constitutional rights and responsibilities. It is not our constitutional right to receive money (that the feds don’t have) if our state government didn’t know how to regulate its own spending.

I feel for those in poverty and in need, I really do. But our federal government has better things to be doing than acting as a Dear Abby replacement with less solutions but more money. We have our federal deficit to be concerned about. Recently, the IMF, in no uncertain terms has declared the US bankrupt, if we continue at the same rate of spending, regardless of what we label as expenditures. This means that as our pockets are emptied, so does our world power status. I’m not saying that it’s the end of the world if the US can’t push the other kids around on the playground anymore, but am I saying that this is a direct threat to our ability to defend our nation, should other threats come our way.

Not everyone in America believes in God like I do. But everyone believes in the Federal Government and its ability to somehow solve problems. Maybe not in its ability to be efficient and do what you think it should be doing, but everyone believes that if the federal government wanted something done, it would get done. It's the human equivalent on God, the great equalizer whose function is to make life better through redistribution of resources and wise decisions. This all powerful government illusion that these wise men (or women) will point their fingers and zap our troubles, that needs to end.

The federal government needs to focus on our nation’s fiscal status before things get worse. The states then need to step it up to take a bigger role. You can’t spend and spend and then blame your shortcomings on the federal government that wasn’t able to bail you out. My mother constantly tells me to only spend what I have in the bank, meaning, use only my debit card. She gets anxious at the mention of a credit card bill so I try to adhere to these smart rules for spending. I sometimes go a little overboard on the spending with the credit card, but I would never call up the credit company saying, “Hi, I don’t have your money but this isn’t my fault because my parents can’t pay for it.”

If a 20 year old can take responsibility for her spending habits, so should our governments. This brings our state officials into greater prominence and importance, something I never thought I’d say. Not that I’ve ever been politically active because in my home state of Maryland (obviously) but taking stock in the people around me, it doesn’t seem to rank high on their lists of things to care about, behind the doings of the Jersey Shore and the Bieber fever, that’s for sure.

So state officials, grow a pair, man up, and take control. We need you to do something for us, for once, while you’re building your resumes for your big future on the Hill.

And on that note, Levi Johnston, please don’t run for Mayor.

What part of 'illegal' don't you understand?

I don’t understand this whole debate over immigration law, particularly the hot button legislation that’s been revolving around Arizona.

I understand that I’m not the brightest bulb in the box so maybe this is something beyond my college student’s ability to comprehend. Must be all that alcohol during Snowpocalypse 2010. Hey, when you’re snowed in for a week, what else are you supposed to do?

Regardless, I understand the concerns with racial profiling. It is unfortunate that our police forces are rank with poor practices that abuse our own, law abiding, citizens.

I understand that immigration is under federal jurisdiction and that to uphold this law would be Arizona overstepping its state powers.

And I understand that asking these new requirements of the Arizona police forces will add extra burdens and tasks that are ultimately up to the federal government to enforce.

However, what I don’t understand is this: there is a public outcry because we are not granting illegal immigrants the rights that they deserve. The impression that I get from these protests is that they deserve to go to school, have access to health care, be able to work at whatever job they would like (within their abilities), and all around hold their head high and be proud to be an American.

Problem: they’re not American. They didn’t get here by legal means and neither do they pay taxes. Which, as I understand it, means they’re stealing from the American public. They’re stealing jobs that could be filled by American laborers (something that is desperately needed as indicated by Arizona’s unemployment rate of 9.6%) and they’re stealing much needed resources from tax paying Americans (financial resources are also a hot commodity nationwide, with our national deficit hitting a whopping $1.4 trillion. I’m tempted to put ‘trillion’ in all caps but I realized that’s a little excessive).

Those are my two main concerns on top of a host of other concerns that we don’t need to delve into because they’re not quite as important. I do get annoyed when I’m on the phone being assisted by an automated bank program and I have to ‘press 1 for English’. We’ve had tons of immigrants who have never tried to make German, Hindu, Serbian, that sweet African language with clicks, or a whole host of Asian languages widespread enough to need the kind of push we’re getting today for more bilingual workers (Spanish preferred). Our previous immigrants kept their heads down, worked hard, and broke the language barrier by learning English. But hey, no one ever declared English as our official language. So in a sense, its fair game to break the language barrier by infiltrating America with just more Spanish. Like the other barrier they’re breaking, the one we put up to keep them out. In any case, you’ve got to admire their cojones.

But back to my main point: they don’t belong here. That sounds harsh when all they are trying to do is make a better life for their family, best case scenario. Worst case scenario, they’re just adding to that whole shady business of drugs that perpetuates on the Mexican border. But I’m not going to paint them all with that brush, because it is, quite frankly, untrue. Not all Mexicans are here to peddle drugs, just like how not all black men can dominate at basketball, not all Asians score higher than you on the SATs, and not all Jews hoard money. But I digress.

I’m really kidding though, I don’t think a lot of these immigrants are here to peddle drugs. Honestly, I wouldn’t even know if they were considering I don’t understand Spanish.

But back to my initial point, they’re illegal. We have immigration policies and procedures that a lot of legal immigrants follow. First and foremost, I don’t think its fair that Mexicans, due to their geographical location to the Land of (decreased) Opportunity, get to bypass the line. For crying out loud, it’s illegal. Granted, I’m one of those people at the Metro who get irate when people cut the line for a broken down escalator that’s hosting two way traffic. They’re not breaking rules but people, there is a line! And it’s the same, well definitely more outrageous that we have such a support for people circumventing our federal laws and policies.

Second, aside from the fact that they’re illegal, they are also undermining the effectiveness of our laws. I’ll bet terrorists in the Middle East are having a good laugh at our attempts to find them. If we can’t even secure our own borders, how will we ever find the Taliban?

We’re losing credibility by the day, with the war overseas not going our way (hasn’t been going our way for a very long time), our dollar falling against the euro, and homeland policies that are dividing our nation (healthcare and taxes, to name a few). To state the obvious, America needs to get it together, one issue at a time.

To return to one of the hotter issues right now, I don’t think it’s completely outrageous to have your papers on you at all time. After all, for American citizens, once you’re past the age of 14, it’s illegal for you to travel without ID. And when we go abroad, one of the key rules to being a safe tourist is having many copies of your passport and having one copy on you at all time.

I also don’t think it’s completely outrageous to disallow solicitation of employment in public places. As illegal immigrants, they have no business being here, much less working and not contributing taxes. I get a little hung up on this. I’ve been paying taxes since I started working (at the age of 14) and I hate it. And it irks me to no end that some people do not pay them.

I do think its crossing the line to let law enforcement officers make warrantless arrests, simply on suspicion of alien status. This is a huge red flag for racial profiling which is a serious problem.

Overall, I have no issue with the ruling. The honorable judge based her decision on this being federal jurisdiction and I have no problem with that. But if the federal government is going to strike down legislation designed to better serve our citizens, they better damn well come up with a productive solution.

I’m not Obama’s number 1 supporter but he has actually taken steps to deport record numbers of illegal immigrants. He’s surpassing our last Republican president’s efforts and we all know how adamant Republicans are about illegal immigrants. I applaud this. However simply deporting illegal immigrants aren’t going to keep them out. What would happen if you tried to shoo your ant infestation outside? They simply come back.

I’m not suggesting that we buy a tricky ant trap with poison so they can bring it back to their Mexican ant queen. But immigrant reform is badly needed. We need to engage these immigrant’s governments, because after all it’s not just our problem. They should be concerned that they hate their homeland so much, they’re risking lives and families to make it into America. We need to collaborate with them to fix our immigration process because right now its clearly inefficient, similar to our government. Yet unlike our government (which was given the gift of inefficiency by our Founding Fathers), it doesn’t need to be inefficient, what it needs is to be more productive.

I have no qualms with legal immigrants coming in, being productive, adding to our innovation (which as been falling in the world markets). In fact the strength of America comes from the fact that we were immigrants who came together to make this great nation. E Pluribus Unem. From many, one.

So lawmakers should consider this issue of utmost importance, because its not going to simply fade from American attention, like that climate bill. Because whether it be ours or theirs, this issue hits too close to home.

Those Lucky Few

I’ve always loved the words ‘high school sweethearts’. I’m a huge romantic, I know, even though I try not to be obnoxiously sappy in public. I love couples and romantically inclined movies dominate my favorites (which include Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Pride and Prejudice, and Two Weeks Notice).

But those words in particular hold a special charm for me, mostly because this was a romance that started way back when. Way back when you had braces, unruly hair, uncontrollable acne outbreaks, and personal hygiene that was suspicious at best. In short, when you were kids.

Most people discredit these as whatever relationships. “We were kids” “We didn’t know anything” “We were too young” “We didn’t know what love was”

These are fair statements. I’m no expert (I’d say I’m still a kid myself) but I’ve heard numbers tossed around about the likelihood of these lasting. The general consensus is around less than 10%, I think. How depressing.

Being a kid is about not knowing anything, really. Kids have this amazing ability to not even need to know everything before jumping in headfirst. Adults get anxious if they don’t look at all sides of the problem (ergo, our government) but for kids to be warned of every single detail, well. We all know what happens. They get bored and do it anyways.

This gift is a double edged sword. On the downside, it can result in you doing things you don’t like, engaging in relationships that you don’t want, and saying things you don’t mean. On the upside, however, it results in that happily ever after 10%.

Because kids aren’t quite tethered to ideals and thoughts of what ifs, they are free to simply fall in pure, unadulterated, love. They don’t have the checklist adults have formulated once you hit college. Is he smart? Is he cute? Is he taller than me, even when I’m standing in heels? Does he have a future? Will he be a good dad? Will he go to church with me on Sundays?

I’m not saying that kids aren’t judgmental in their own way. But they see beyond those judgments to accept you for who you really are. And in that way I admire children’s acceptance. And in that way I feel that those relationships that were built so long ago, when you were kids, are something really and truly special. A special that’s proudly proclaimed in the words ‘we’re high school sweethearts’.

Went to 6 Flags with Trey for the Umpteenth Time and Loved It Better Than Ever

- arguing about what kind of date we were going to have

- 6 flags trumping Mary Poppins out of pure spite

- superman. over and over again

- testudo cape

- age guessing game

- filming the bungee jump

- looking for beer

- getting drunk by the bar

- winning icing

- winning a lot of games

- not winning the ring toss with the plastic rings and glass bottles

- debating about a couples relative attractiveness or lack thereof

- people watching in general

- running into amanda

- admiring thomas town from afar

- tucking the redskins flag under my arm and dropping it

- make out sesh in line

- being obnoxiously adorable

- roller coasters

- not being rained on/perfect weather

- being targeted during bumper cars by a crazy man in a turban. supreme dislike

- sitting in the back of a roller coaster > sitting in the front

- getting mildly lost on the way because the person who was supposed to get directions didn't get directions

- swings right before we left. "Sir, you're going to have to let go of her"

a perfect date.

I Don't Actually Think You're Entirely Wrong But I'm Going to Spite You Anyways

Sometimes its hard for me to get a word in edgewise with trey when he’s on a roll. Which is always. He says that I always disagree with him and he hates it. Honestly, if he wanted someone who agreed with him all the time he could pick up one of the “sluts” that seem to hang around fraternity boys the same way mosquitoes can’t resist your skin (similar in more ways than one, I might add)

I admit that I disagree a lot, even if I don’t disagree entirely, just a little bit, I don’t go out of my way to let him know about the parts that I do agree on. And its because when he talks about something, I know that he only talks about things that he knows but it irks me the way he talks about it. Its as if his opinion consists of the only real and knowledgeable facts in the world that you should rely on and everyone else is wrong. Unless they agree. A lot of times he is right. Not entirely, but right enough to pass off as correct. But you can’t address everything like that. You can’t address everything single-mindedly. The problem does not just consist of A, the problem consists of a mix of A, B, C, some T, and lot of X.

So our unemployed population does not just consist of those lazy homeless who beg all day and don’t need an unemployment stimulus benefits (which I agree, I hate those people). But our unemployed people are the Generation Xers and Millienials who thought that the baby boomers would clear out by now (indeed that’s what we’ve been preparing for in business school, its why the big firms are bending over backwards to woo the ever decreasing workforce). But because baby boomers hit the retirement age and they want to retire but have found that due to the shitty economic climate, all their assets have greatly depreciated and the government can’t afford to pay their social security because that money has gone elsewhere. So they keep working at high wages (because they’ve been there for a long time) and prevent new workers from getting jobs. Our unemployed are the people who have been laid off, not because they were terrible workers but because firms have found that in this day and age of globalization, innovation and increased productivity are costing more than what the firm can afford. So they’re cutting back on their largest overhead: labor. Lets not forget the slump that the Southeast region has been in since Hurricane Katrina (because of the shoddy federal response) and the continued devastation on the area from the awful oil spill. Thousands are out of work and through no fault of their own.

I agree that the culprits behind the economic failure be allowed to fail themselves. It’s the very nature of the market to repair itself. As long as the demand is there, the supply will come. I agree that the stimulus package may have prolonged the cycle and it may take a little longer to repair our economy because as we throw money at our problem, we take another step closer to international contempt at our debt that we can’t seem to control. But it did mildly alleviate problems our people were having troubles facing. But to point fingers to the stimulus as a single cause for the extension of the unemployment that’s plaguing our country is simply wrong. In any recovery, repressing unemployment rates is anemic at best. Simply put, you just don’t have jobs during these times. Considering this has been the worst depression since the Great Depression I would say expect tough times as it is. Combined with the fact that previous recoveries were aided by bubble industries (doc com, housing, etc) we are in for tough times indeed, unless we encounter a bubble of our own to aid us in our economic struggle for stability.

In response to your ideas of a New Deal type solution, I like it. I liked FDR and I liked his plans. And while his extended presidency was extreme, it certainly wasn’t uncalled for as his leadership steered America away from prolonged disaster. Desperate times call for desperate measures after all. I’m just curious about whether or not Trey’s worried about spending more money from an already depleted Treasury.

What it comes down to is this. In the previous paragraphs I’ve agreed on almost every single technical point he brought up in our disagreement. Its really is just his manner of approaching the problem. He may or may not be right and I’m not trying to promote that stupid maxim ‘no right or wrong answer’ but in macro economics, there really isn’t. There are only theories and attempts to change the market. But for him to charge into the conversation, declaring absolute Truth with that classic American hubris, of course I’m going to hate it.

And of course I’m going to challenge him.