The 99 and the 1

Sometimes I don’t catch on right away.

Take this 1 and 99  stuff.

Or is it 1% and 99%?

In any case there was a lot of hoopla about it.  Maybe there still is.  I am sometimes left out of the hoopla loop.

 I think it was about rich people having bunches and bunches of money.  I think that’s why they call them rich people.  In the present circumstance, they seem to have so much that they are called super rich.  I guess if I had bunches and bunches of money that would be super so I’m OK with the term super rich or super rich.

I suppose some of this is about senior corporate officers getting paid more than they are worth and getting away with some unscrupulous practices.  It seems we only get upset about that when we are not getting our cut (let’s be civil and call it a dividend) of these money for nothing returns.  My apologies to Dire Straits for the metaphoric association. 

On second thought, no apology is needed.

It is really hard for me to comprehend why people would camp out on Wall Street or in the business district of any city over how much money someone or some company is making.

Really?

Are we so blind as not to see that in comparison to most of the world,  we are all super rich?  Those people on welfare and food stamps are even rich compared to most of the world.

I don’t live for money, but if I don’t have enough for what I need, then I cut expenses or make more.  I just can’t see myself camping out in front of someone’s office because they make more than I do.

I could be wrong.

Not about our skewed perspectives on wealth and selfishness and absurd protests—I could be wrong about the hubbub over the 99 and the 1.

This must be about the less than 1% of the adult population that chooses to serve in the Armed Forces of the United States.

Yes, that must be it.

Not even 1 out of 100 serves our country in this way.  The 99 are free to pursue happiness and wealth, fame and fortune, love and longevity in the safety of the U.S. of America.

The problem is that this 1% doesn’t occupy Wall Street or Main Street or Bourbon Street.  Many occupy a fighting hole in some gawd-awful places or live afloat in spaces which would grant an inmate early release from prison for reasons of overcrowding.

Why?

Because when they volunteered to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic, they set aside some personal rights and comforts.  Why are they where they are?

That’s where they were sent.

They followed orders.

They did not complain.

Yes, that must be what all the hoopla and hubbub are about in this 1 and 99 business. 

It would surely be discouraging to a young Marine scraping the sand off of his cold MRE to think that back home people were sitting on their lazy butts complaining about how much money somebody else made and how that wasn’t fair and how somebody should do something about it and how bad they have it in the greatest nation the world has ever known.

But sometimes, I am just out of the loop.

Perhaps if I would spend less time enjoying the blessings of liberty and more time nitpicking what’s going on with everyone else, then I would be in the know.

Good luck with that.

I think that all those who are camped out and complaining are majoring in the minors and missing the big picture altogether.

That big picture says that you are blessed beyond a measure that most of the world has ever experienced.

Count your blessings.

Quit pouting.

Get to work.

Or, better yet, get down to an Armed Forces Recruiting Center, and say, “Sign me up.  I want to be the 1 and not the 99.”