Unemployed nephew too good for garbage collection

self | 10/25/09 | self

[FourPeas]

It gets better. Said unemployeed nephew showed up at our door just over a week ago, after we didn't respond to his email asking if he could come and stay with us while he looked for a job. He drove nearly 1000 miles expecting us to let him sleep in his truck parked on our driveway. Of course, he had a sob story. After a few days of being gone for 2-3 hours each, he's says he's now found a job...we'll see. He's been careful not to expect us to provide coffee, meals, laundry, gas for his truck, etc.

During a discussion with my nephew, a 30-something unemployed laborer, about how we pay to dispose of our trash, he emphatically stated that he would never work collecting garbage, especially not in the summer. The response came automatically without hesitation from my husband: it seems the safety net and minimum wage is too high in our country if we can't find people to do jobs like that. My nephew didn't say anything after that, but I'm sure the truth hurts, especially when it comes from his favourite uncle.

[FourPeas]

You've got that right. His wife gets disability payments and his mother has been helping to support them for the past two years. She finally put her foot down.

[Lazamataz]

Gracious, some of you sure take offense easily. It was just a question.

THERE! YOU DID IT AGAIN!!!!

QUESTIONS MAKE ME KILL!!!

[trisham]

Nobody’s perfect.

[FourPeas]

I’ve not researched the laws in Oklahoma, but that’s on my short list just in case we have to get tough on him.

[runninglips]

I watched a story on the tube of a man that allowed his son to live in a garage on his property. The son was a drug addict, stealing cars and parting them out, along with selling drugs. The son was arrested, and imprisoned for 5-10 years. The father went about cleaning out the garage, and found the sons girlfriend living there with some more “friends”. He kicked them out, had the garage cleaned and guess what? The girlfriend had a civil liberties attorney take her case. The homeowner was arrested, and prohibited from coming into contact with the building, or its occupants when he was released. He was required to replace anything he had “stolen”, turn the power on, and even let them use the car his son had been “borrowing”. The lesson is, be very careful who you allow on your property, in your house or to get close to you. You as a taxpayer, a homeowner and a person, have less rights to what you “own” than you have been led to believe.

[muir_redwoods]

A truth I (fortunately) learned early is that no job brings honor to the worker; it's the worker's job to bring honor to the job.

A good garbage man is better than a poor surgeon.

[raybbr]

I wouldn’t take this too seriously; I, myself, said things like “I’ll never touch poop with my hands’, and ‘I’ll never catch vomit to check for blood’...and then I became a mother.

LOL Here too. I caught my son's vomit one day at the dinner table just so he wouldn't make a big mess. Still wiping butts full of poop. My sons still poop in their pants when they are too "busy" playing outside (7 and 4 1/2). The only way to get it out is too grab it and throw it in the toilet so it doesn't fall an the floor.

[mysterio]

Another day, another "unemployed people are lazy" thread. You win the Sunday prize.

[tbw2]

Isn’t there also the risk of being unable to evict people who stay but don’t have a lease?

[eyedigress]

I always thought mob ties were needed in order to get the trash pick-up gig.

[Seven plus One]

Collecting garbage is a good paying union job, paid holidays, great benefits, overtime out the wazoo, and security; the work is never done as long as people throw stuff out. You'd have to know somebody to land that job. (around here, at least) So I can understand why he'll never do that.

[Lazamataz]

There is also the problem of unexpected attacks.

[MileHi]

Be careful. Some cities like to be compassionate on your back.

[martin_fierro]

The Landlord (some potty mouf)

[TASMANIANRED]

Helping someone is one thing but too much help can be an anvil.

[MileHi]

Very true. Stunning to learn the hard way.

[Palladin]

With the economy what it is, I ask myself occasionally, “Which of my eight adult children would I allow to move back in with me?”

My son’s very profitable pharmaceutical company is about to fire 33 of its 100 chemists. He’s been with them 20 years, but is still worried.

Another son might be caught in Rendell’s slashing of the PA state budget. His department has to “downsize” 27% by the end of the year.

These are guys with Master’s Degrees in highly specialized work.

My daughter’s husband’s work week in IT has been cut back to 3 days a week. He has already lost all benefits.

Obama’s hope and change is killing the middle class.

But maybe that was the Dem plan all along.

[FourPeas]

Well said.

[autumnraine]

Well, then I feel for his wife and six kids. Just damn.

[FourPeas]

That's mighty cynical of you. Perhaps you should know someone before you bestow such an honor on them. You might be interested to learn that the same month our oldest son turned one and we'd learned a second child was on the way, the company my husband worked for was unexpectedly sold and its closure announced the same day. Or perhaps the time my husband was laid off and abandoned in Mexico by a failing company. Or perhaps five years ago, when Michigan was already in economic trouble, when in the fourth round of layoffs we were again without a job, this time in a terrible economy. I'll spare you the other stories.

May I rather gently suggest that you know what you're posting about unless, of course, you enjoy making an ass of yourself?