A “working” American’s letter to President Obama

Dear Mr. President,

Let me get right to the point. Please stop demonizing me.

After working and saving for over fifty years, I have the unenviable position of being one of those Americans who you insist have not paid his fair share.  I beg to differ.  I have worked since I was fourteen and continue to do so at age sixty-seven.  Mr. President I did not roll out of bed the day I graduated from high school and find myself “wealthy.” Let me explain.

I grew up in East Orange, NJ in a one-bedroom apartment with my parents and sister. I slept on the couch in the living room. My father was an automobile salesman who worked seven days a week, my mother stayed at home. I graduated from East Orange High School with a few hundred other people, including about 50% minorities.  Since no one in my family attended college, there was no mention of it for me.  I was told to take a general course in high school. While I was not prepared for college, I graduated high school in 1961 knowing how to write a check, balance a checkbook and I could find France on the map. I knew who the second president of the United States was and I respected my teachers, quite an accomplishment by today’s standards.  The point is I grew up a decidedly average American.

It took me six months to find a job after high school graduation and when I did, it was a union position as a mail boy in a large company. I was the lowest paid person at $1.49 an hour out of 15,000 employees.  I retired from that same company in January 2010 as a Vice President.  You see, it took me forty-eight years to become one of the people you seek to blame for America’s economic woes.

I began college at night a few years after graduating high school, but learned that I had none of the prerequisite courses and would have to attend for two years before I could start receiving credits toward graduation.  As naive as I was, I gave up.  In 1968 my National Guard Unit was called up for Vietnam (most people do not even remember that activation) and I spent twenty-two months on active duty. When I was discharged, I again started college going to two different community colleges, then a state university for a total of nine years to earn a degree.

During the forty-eight years I worked, my wife and I raised four children. She stayed at home to raise the kids (and participated in all their school activities, volunteered, etc.). We lived modestly (my children still remind me I never took them to Disneyworld), we never used credit cards or our home as an ATM and we saved.  We put all four children through college using all our savings to that point and started saving again ten years after our first child began college. Oh, and to help with the bills during the college years, we started a small in-home business in which the entire family participated.

We live in the same modest eighty-year old home (sans a family room let alone master suite) we purchased over 35 years ago. We still have a small mortgage (ten years of college, remember?), but no other debt. 

During my forty-eight year career, I was fortunate to accumulate a good pension and together with my Social Security and investment income, I meet the new definition of “wealthy” in America.  No, I am not a billionaire or even a multi-millionaire, just comfortable at age sixty-seven.

Do not misunderstand me Mr. President, I am not special.  Millions of Americans can tell a similar story and more important, millions more are working hard to achieve the same success. I do not want a pat on the back. What I do want is for you to stop holding me up as an example of what is wrong with America. I want you and members of your party to stop telling Americans that I did not and do not pay my fair share.   

I never hampered anyone from taking advantage of his or her opportunities, I merely took full advantage of mine and isn’t that part of the American dream. Instead of pulling down those Americans who played by the rules and were successful, why not tell struggling Americans that a good education is vital. Tell them that a sound family life is necessary and that it is not cool to drop out of high school, graduate unable to read or write, buy things you cannot afford or accumulate debt unnecessarily

Oh, one more thing.  I paid Social Security taxes from age fourteen for a total of over fifty-three years most of that time at the highest level.  I realize those taxes were not to my benefit but to beneficiaries collecting Social Security while I was working.  However, today as I collect my benefits I return 21% of it to the government in income taxes.  I guess that’s fair.

Mr. President, you are not bringing America together, you are pulling it apart.

 Sincerely,

  A  “Working” American

P.S.  Mr. President, I would like to leave the assets I have left when I die to my children and grandchildren. I want to help them achieve their American dream. None of them is fortunate to have a pension, the future of their Social Security is questionable and surely, they will be paying much more in taxes to deal with the debt we are accumulating as a nation.  The estate tax was intended to be temporary; today it is gone, so let us leave it that way.  I paid my fair share; there is no reason for the government to confiscate what is left of my American dream.