Ronald Reagan



Personal Responsibility

A Personal Perspective from Personal Experience



Ever since I have been in grade school I have heard this being spewed about as if it is the root of the problems with this country. I am sick of hearing that. It makes me furious.



Starting in 5th Grade, a History Teacher asked “does anyone know why the Spaniards defeated the Incas”? I raised my hand and answered “because they had bigger feet to stomp them out with” That prompted the teacher to saunter around the room as he explained that “when a TV is broke, sometimes you need to pound on it” as he got to that point he was in front of me and he grabbed my head in both hands and proceeded to pound my head on the desk repeatedly.



I was terrified, and later that week my parents had a parent’s teacher’s conference with him and I was afraid that they would find out how bad I was. When they returned it was clear that he had not conveyed the incident, and although they never told me what he did say exactly they said that they could not believe it. I assume that it was something like I would never amount to anything and would end up being an irresponsible good for nothing.



In Junior High and High school my grades deteriorated and I sort of fell out of the system. In 10th Grade we had a counselor’s session where I was given the opportunity to go to Technical School in order to prepare me for a trade instead of going the College Route. Again, my parent’s never told me the results of the meeting with the counselor, but I have since determined that they were told I had ADD. ADD was especially evil back then and I am sure my parents were incensed to be told their child had an imaginary disorder.



I went to Technical School for Graphic Arts ½ day and High school ½ day for 11th and 12th grade. Two weeks before the last day of school I found a job and started immediately. Unfortunately I had left a text book in my locker in the school and could not return it. I was told that I could not graduate unless I returned the book. Even though I told them that I was working and that the book was in my locker, I was not allowed to graduate. My next door neighbor told me that when my name was not read off her father stated “I knew he would never amount to anything”.



I worked my first two years living out of home commuting to the city every day. My boss at that job would torment everyone posting available jobs that were much worse than the jobs we had, and basically told us all that there weren't any other positions available because of the economy (2nd year of Reagan) so we should be grateful to work there.



I sent resumes all across the country and got a job in Houston, Texas. Two weeks later I packed all of my possessions in my Buick Gran Sport and moved to Texas. That started a long career of taking different positions – many times at a lesser pay – to learn my trade and become one of the best at what I did. I have held 15 different jobs in 11 different cities, 5 different States, and 2 Different Countries since 1979. All of the jobs that I have had were advancements to my career and I have never lost a job for any reason, until last year.



Before I explain about losing a job for the first time in 32 years, I will talk about my family. In 1992 I moved to Bolivia, South America where I learned Spanish and worked at several jobs in different cities. It was there that I met my wife, and there where my daughter was born. When I returned to the US I had to petition for my wife and daughter to join me here. It took years, and a lot of money. I had to purchase a visa for my wife for $500 and to get her to the country I had to prove we were married. Part of the proof was the birth of our daughter.



When she got her visa and was about to come, she called and told me that I also needed to buy a visa for my Daughter for another $500, but that more importantly I had to prove she was my daughter. (I guess that the birth certificate that we used to prove that our Marriage was legitimate wasn’t enough?)



When they went to pick up the Visa for my Daughter who was just three years old, they showed her pictures of me and interrogated her asking if this was her daddy. (she was only six months old when I left the country and didn't even know me) The point is that we were sent through a system that was extremely long, difficult, and expensive assuring that I was a responsible citizen.



Since arriving in the US in 1998, my Wife and Daughter learned English, and my wife learned to drive and has had a job since her third year here. She also studied for and became a US Citizen after five years – the soonest that is possible to be granted citizenship.



I can’t begin to tell you about the prejudice that she confronts on a regular basis from “real Americans”. Sometimes I am still shocked when she hands me the phone and I hear the person on the other end completely do an about face because I don’t have an accent.



When my family arrived I was working at a World Renowned Association for the Graphic Arts – and I was travelling across the Hemisphere consulting and speaking about the Printing Business. I did speaking engagements and consulting in English and Spanish throughout the Americas.



I got a job in Atlanta in 1999, and was at that job until late 2011. Even though I was told I was one of the best at what I did in the Country, I never received a merit raise. Although I asked regularly, I did not insist because I wanted to do the right thing for the Company when it was in hard times.



In 2008 when the economy crashed violently my company began having problems like many others. Like everyone I was happy to be responsible and contribute where I could as people were losing their jobs left and right.



In 2009 I accepted a position where I would not travel as much and in turn I would have more responsibility growing the business. During that time one boss was advanced and I was left without a superior. Then, a very conservative guy wanted me to work for him, so it was done. I had to listen to him rant and spew conservative and prejudiced crap day in and day out. One of his favorite mantras was “personal responsibility”.



From 2009 to 2010 my salary was reduced 25% due to the reduction in travel to customers. During this same period I was instrumental in increasing the workload for at least four other people who I trained and who traveled doing the same work that I used to do. Now they were all making more than me, and some were doing bad jobs and costing more money for the company. Many times I was sent to rectify these situations making my job extremely stressful.



After one year of reduced salary due to no overtime I was in serious trouble financially. I approached my boss for a raise to the level I made when I got overtime. He told me he was on it. I would check every other month or so and I was assured that wheels were in motion. After nine months we were in serious trouble and I approached my boss one last time for emergency help. I was told that he was working on a new job description.



We couldn't pay our bills so we went to consumer counseling. We were behind to the tune of $1500 per month, and after collecting every tidbit of our financial data we were told that they could offer us a plan to get out of debt that would include monthly payments to creditors for five years of $1400, or $100 less than the $1500 that we didn't have.



We then went to a lawyer to file bankruptcy which was really humiliating for us. After collecting the same data that the Credit Counseling companies did they told us that we made too much money to file for chapter 7 Bankruptcy so we would have to file Chapter 13 which amounted to five years of monthly payments of $1400 per month, or exactly the same plan as Consumer Counselling. We later found out that the Credit Counseling Companies were paid by the Credit industry and that the Bankruptcy Laws were written by them too and passed in 2005 under Bush.



Our only option: Just don’t pay them. So we started to not pay, and received at least 50 calls every day. We didn't answer most, but one in particular I remember well. I answered the phone and the Collection agency asked when I would pay them. I stated I don’t know and that I couldn't pay them anything. Then he said it: “Why are you so irresponsible that you don’t pay your debts”?



Wait – A Credit Card Collector calling me irresponsible. I lit into him and explained that he had a great big set of balls asking me why I was irresponsible when his bosses were the ones responsible for crashing the economy, who received 800 billion dollar bailouts paid for by my taxes, and who then paid themselves million dollar bonuses – and I was irresponsible.



I was still waiting for work to help us out. My boss finally came back and showed me the Job Description that he made which gave me more responsibility and he also informed me that they had determined it did not justify more money! I went to HR and they said that was the way that it was.



Meanwhile, we couldn't pay our debts for six months and then the Creditors all started to offer us settlements. In a settlement, if you owe $20,000 they may accept $10,000 as long as you pay the other $10,000 immediately. We owed $56,000 and through savings and other creative means we managed to pay $28,000 and had $28,000 forgiven. The company that forgives the debt writes it off on tax and sends you a 1099 form so that you can claim the forgiven debt as income, so our tax bill this year was $10,000.



Back on the work front I did a review and had documentation and evidence that during the two years my salary was decreased 25% I was responsible for increasing the service product I was responsible for to $750,000 per year from an average of $250,000 per year. What is more, I had documentation that showed that I was directly responsible for roughly $9,000,000 of “peripheral” sales that would not have occurred without my involvement.



When I presented this data I was told that they would look into it and reconsider my Job Description. On my way to the airport to service an important customer I was diverted to the office to discuss the Job Description where I was told that my position had been eliminated.



I was then fed a boatload of shit: Bad Economy, Nobody Getting Raises, Blah, Blah. And I was also told I was irresponsible claiming I alone was responsible for creating the revenue when we had an entire team that shared responsibility equally. I was also told that I could remain on the job for three more months if I could act professionally in front of their customers – after all they were worried about their image. I laughed at them.



I was so naive that I didn't realize that revenue isn't really valuable to a company. I mean, I was told that they would rather have several jobs to keep several employees busy that totaled $5,000 for one week and lost money, rather than one job that paid $20,000 for one person for one week at significant profit.



So I got a new job the next day. I got a small raise and started working immediately. I had to remain uninsured for one month at the new job, or pay $1400 for Cobra for that one month.



So there is the usual stress and adjustment starting a new job, but that goes rather well. After nine months at the new job I finally started to get adjusted and get in a groove.



One day my wife called and said that someone from work called at our home phone number and wanted to speak with me. It was my Birthday, and it was very strange for someone to call my home number because nobody but HR had it. I thought that I missed a conference call with a customer.



A few days later my boss called me and said well I guess you got the call on Friday? I apologized for missing the call and asked if I was fired. He said don’t worry, you didn't miss the call, but we were all fired.



They closed the division that I worked for even though it was making a profit, even though we had a new contract worth Millions. The rest of the company was losing money and coming out of its second Bankruptcy so they tried to sell off the division that I worked for to cancel one of the debts they owed.



Now, after 32 years of continuous work I am out of a job. Thank God we don’t have a lot of debt – other than a house that is worth $140,000 but that we owe $160,000 on thanks to the Housing Crises. We also have no savings other than our 401K, and no cash either. We will have no insurance on November 1st unless we cough up $1400 dollars for the Cobra. If we don’t pay the $1400 for the Cobra it is very possible that if and when I do get another job I won’t be eligible because of a pre-existing condition of diabetes.



If and when I do get another job it will most likely be in another city and state and we will most likely lose our house.



Our daughter Graduates High School next spring and I ask myself what can we do for her?



After all of this I sit day after day and watch the Presidential Debates and I watch as one of them claims that they will create jobs. He claims again and again he is a job creator. His job creation plan is to cut taxes. He plans to cut taxes to promote business owners to invest in hiring new employees. (Corporate Profits are at the highest level since the 1930’s)



Mitt Romney is the guy who fired me – twice. He is the asshole investor that knows nothing about the business he invested in and buys them to bankrupt them. He gets millions of dollars of profit at the expense of the workers. He pays less tax than I do – and I am unemployed.



This is exactly the business model that has caused the crisis in this country. Maximize profits for immediate gain and strip the profits instead of reinvesting them. When the company becomes less profitable then it gets restructured and the professionals who were responsible for creating the huge profits for the company are the first to go because they make the most money.



The same assholes who took the profits the first time collect bonuses for their cost cutting efforts. It goes like this until the company goes into bankruptcy and as the workers lose their jobs the assholes who managed to destroy the company get more bonuses. Then they claim that their taxes are too high and say that unless they are lowered they won’t be able to create new jobs.



New Addition:



The last job I lost gave me a for week severance which I was very glad to receive. The separation letter that I had to sign clarified each and every point of MY RESPONSIBILITY in order that the company honor the severance.



A few days ago I received yet another very legal looking document which informed me that since the company was going into it's THIRD BANKRUPTCY since 2005 they would not be honoring their previous commitment (Responsibility) of paying my severance.



Ronald Reagan - Take your personal responsibility and roll it up in a tight little ball and shove it up ..........

