Oh, snap.

In regards to healthcare reform: "It must be REALLY hard to watch democracy work when you are rich & white & powerful."

I normally keep my mouth shut about my personal politics. But, when I read the above quote in a Facebook status today I decided to throw etiquette aside and put in my two cents.

I'm not going to mince words. I come from a fairly affluent upbringing and have never wanted for anything. I don't have any student loans. My parents are conservative and don't particularly like parting with 42% of their income and I really don't blame them. Call my father an asshole if you want, but realize that he is 52 years old and still works 7 days a week. Actually, I didn't know that dads didn't work every day until I went to play dates on Saturdays and noticed that every other dad was watching sports and drinking beer. For all of the critics out there, yes, I did play with middle class white kids and I know plenty of other parents worked their asses off to scrape by.

I digress.

My family's business is in some potentially serious financial shit because of the new mandates to carry health insurance. And the best part about all of this is that there has never been a time where they didn't offer health benefits. Moreover, everyone from the CEO to the minimum wage workers had the same exact insurance plan.

Do the math. For an industry that makes no more than 3% profit each year to be stuck with new rules, fines, and costs to provide something that is already in place is frankly devastating. No profit = no company. No company = loss of 250+ jobs.

And where does that leave the poor white rich man? Wait... don't powerful white men like to lay people off or dissolve their 40 year old business to stay afloat? Yes, my friends, the powerful white wealthy man certainly has had his comeuppance!

Fuck that.

I could not have asked for a better role model than my rich white father to teach me the importance of hard work and treating everyone with respect.

Nothing about these new laws is without flaw... not for doctors, insurance companies, politicians OR patients. Neither were the tactics used to get this whole mess passed. That's just politics. But, ignorance such as the above statement should not be tolerated, regardless of race or income.