I had another thought (or two hundred thousand, between Monday and today).

We ALL have a huge sense of entitlement. Someone stated that they thought that I wanted to have been born a thousand years ago in some dark European dungeon rather than born here, in the U.S.

If I had, I wouldn't be alive today. With my poor vision, and chronic migraines, I would have never made it out of childhood. I'd have wandered off from my parents or gotten separated from them and probably starved to death in the wilderness. I certainly wouldn't have made it to the age of 34, gone to school, owned my own house, been allowed to own property or be an individual person. So...no. Plus, there's that whole indoor plumbing thing. I would certainly miss my daily hot showers. And shaving...yeah, I'd miss shaving. Can you imagine the state of my eyebrows?

Not too long ago folks had a concept called your "lot in life". If you were poor, you struggled mightily to better yourself, but bettering yourself meant getting out of the gutter to...above the gutter, not moving to Mayfair. Now we all want to become King, don't we? We don't want to be just a lowly trashman or house cleaner or whatever with a solid backbone and a good work ethic and a good family. No, we want to be that person featured on tv, that lucky soul who, with just a bit o'luck, can be transformed into an elegant member of the upper crust of American society with just a bit of polish and some earnest scrubbing of our fingernails. Now every single person in America, regardless of station in life, birth, place of origin, sex, class, race, level of intelligence, is raised to think that he or she can be a rocket scientist or president or a super model or whatever mommy and daddy thinks that their darling can become.

PUT DOWN THAT CRACKPIPE!

A dose of realism is called for. Please understand that I'm not picking on anyone here; I'm just using examples.

The weeble wobble that lives in my cul de sac is not going to be president. He is not going to be a doctor or a lawyer. It is possible he might be a teacher. Or work in the family business. Or operate his own business. He is not going to join the army or the navy. He is not going to become a librarian. He is MOST CERTAINLY (based on his ability to operate a lawn mower) not going into landscaping. He simply does not have the aptitude for any of those things, regardless of what the education system hopes to give him, and regardless of whatever his parents may or may not tell him.

We all have hopes and we all have dreams. And they are hopes and dreams for a reason - they give us something to aspire to. They give us something to strive for. They are not, however, entitlements. Money is not an entitlement. Wealth is not an entitlement. If you want it, you have to work for it.

Warning: China Bashing Ahead

China has millions of people who live on less than $90 a year.

How many of you spend more than that a WEEK at the grocery store?

Can you imagine living in a world where $90 A YEAR was all you had to your name?

Think about that when you are paying your bills and moaning about how poor you are.

You aren't poor at all.

Look at your waistline. Do you see bones? I didn't think so. If you don't see bones, you can still eat, and therefore you aren't poor. The upside to the whole "depression/recession" debate is that maybe America's obesity epidemic will be forcibly addressed - people will be too broke to eat. Fat people will be too poor to shop for food!

Do you still live in your McMansion, or in your little house? Then you aren't poor. Do you still drive a car? Then you aren't poor.

Go bitch to someone else.