Man, there's a whole bunch of bad mojo going on in this thread.
Anyway, back to the OP. What happened and when did I start feeling like a grown-up? I bought a car with my own money when I was about 17. A Plymouth Roadrunner with a 383 Magnum and a 4 barrel. Having a muscle car made me think I was
the shit... even though the car was (truly) shit. But since I was still living at home, I don't recall that I really felt grown up with that purchase. So I guess it was more when I got a job and shortly thereafter put together a deal to buy my own place (with some crafty financing). Putting together a deal to buy a duplex with a tenant for 20% under the asking price, live in it rent free for six months prior to closing on it and then not having to pull a penny out of my pocket at closing made me so darn proud of myself. My head swelled up and I thought I was a Master of the Universe
(I'd just read Bonfire of the Vanities
). Fifty people couldn't have convinced me that I wasn't on the same level as Donald Trump when I walked out of that closing.
Now, fast forward to the present. Read this part while listening to Joe Walsh's
Life's Been Good. In life, I know that I've won a lot more fights than I've lost. And no matter what, I've always snapped back. But with enough punches to the head, even Muhammad Ali (The Greatest) has slurred speech now. So every time a birthday clicks by or I hear about one of my contemporaries dying (at least three in the past few months), I know that my days of kicking ass and taking names are fading away... now sooner than later. And unlike in my youth, I now realize that my financial good fortune shouldn't define who I am as a person... as a human being. Because at the end of the day, I'll be a pile of dust, just like the poorest person on earth will - no different. And when I got really sick a few years ago and had to wage war against my insurance company, a hospital and a couple of doctors, I learned something from that: when people think you're down and weak, that is EXACTLY when they'll move in for the kill. And that realization is actually what made me recover as quickly as I did. Before a hyena moves in on a sick lion, he better make damn sure that the old motherfucker is dead.
I also learned something else from that experience: now with a pre-existing condition (even though I'm quite healthy now), no insurance company would issue me a non-group, reasonable, affordable health insurance policy. For probably $1000 to $1500/mo, I could get a really shitty 70/30 policy from some fly-by-night issuer, that might pay about half the time and take 6 months to pay (so I'd be getting notices from doctors and hospitals and probably have to pay the bills myself while "the claim was being processed"). And yeah, with hard work, being fairly crafty over the years with deals and my money and just old fashioned good luck, I can write some fairly large checks if I need to. But if I was flat on my back with a serious illness (and sooner or later, I know I will be - we
all will be), my money would eventually run out, just like most anybody else's would. So the prospect of health care insurance reform meant a lot to me, especially since it was being debated about the time that I got sick. There is an individual here, a mod, in fact, who has said on numerous occasions that this law just benefits "ghetto trash" and people who have never contributed to society and never will. I've always taken great offense to his statements because, let's be honest, I'm relatively certain that if I'd stopped doing anything at the age of 24 or so (after selling my interest in a mortgage company) that my net worth at that point would have greatly exceeded his, even if he lived to be 100 - unless he won the lottery or married a rich, widow woman. So I don't appreciate someone like him saying that because (even) I can't afford to pay $1500/mo for a shit policy and be faced with having to write a check for $250K or more for cancer surgery, that all of a sudden, I'm a piece of trash that should just wander into the woods and die like an animal if I got sick. This old lion ain't dead yet, motherfucker. So you best be careful doing that hyena laugh within reach of my right paw. One good swipe is all it takes.
Some people hate my long posts and diatribes. But this one has a point. I felt like a grown up when I bought my first place and used what I'd learned about finance to do it damn well. But now, many years later, after thinking that I was a success, I've come to realize that
without the ability to insure myself,
every fucking thing that I have worked my entire life for could be taken away from me by a hospital lawyer. So I don't feel so grown up anymore. The circle is complete.
What we have is not what I wanted. This law is so poorly written and badly implemented that it's not funny. It's such a joke. But if we'd had some reasonable people in Congress deciding on a rational path to reform the insurance market place and medical care, instead of limousine liberals (who know little about the realities of business) arguing with teabagger conservatives (creating lies about death panels), I honestly think that we could have gotten a decent piece of legislation that would work for most people. But still, what we have is better than nothing. Hopefully, especially as the TEA party loses influence among the population, we can further perfect and improve this legislation without totally gutting it. That's my hope anyway. But no matter what, we cannot and will not go backwards.
/diatribe off/