The ugly side of class warfare

Tired of listening to the nice polite republicans on NPR, I sampled another network of talkers with an obvious lean toward the GOP.  The talking head was spouting about America's out of control welfare state.    He presumed it was self evident that a minimum wage worker with an absent spouse and three kids could be living the life of Riley with all the government welfare state programs available to her.  Medicaid and food stamps are rotting the fiber of American society.  Meanwhile the example he cited of the hapless middle class paying for this welfare was a poor orthopedist who did indentured servitude as an intern for many years and his $500,000/year salary which is being stripped by state and local taxes to pay for the idle poor.  If just one of these idiots tried to live on a $9.00/hr. salary for a year, they would come away with a new respect for their fellows on the low end of society.  The government subsidies he howls about make life somewhat more bearable for Walmart type workers, but we are actually subsidizing Walmart, McDonalds and other low wage payers.  If the minimum wage was hiked to $15.00/hr and the myth of "health care is a privilege" instead of a basic human right was exploded for the pernicious lie that it is, we might start to see a more just society take the place of the present farce.  Meanwhile, down on the farm, I was able to get a little planting and yard work done among the weekend rain showers.  It looks like we are at least a couple of weeks behind schedule at this point, but the weather appears to want to turn to a more springlike regime.   Last year, the plantings were more advanced, but heavy rains in late May and June decimated many areas of the gardens, so on balance I think we are ahead of the game....so far.