I wonder how many of us have Obamacare stories already. I mean, how could I have one? I’m not even officially employed. This is the third day I’ve not met or spoken to a single soul, and that’s not unusual. I might meet one new person a month – on a busy month. And yet I ran into an Obamacare story. You guys who actually interact with other people: You must have a million of them by now.
You guys know my neighbors D&L, right? Well, D&L have been building their very own amazing 3000 sq. ft. home out of straw bales and earthbags and home-made stucco and adobe for several years now. They are not only quite familiar with the layout of the Home Depot in the big town about 50 miles away, they’re on first-name terms with about half the orange-aprons.
There’s this one guy who’s L’s favorite. Let’s call him Carl, since as I recall that’s actually his name. Carl is a tile and stone specialist, and to hear him tell it he’s amazing. He might actually be, too: He and L have struck up an actual friendship because she’s doing a lot of tile-work with some fairly unconventional materials, and he seems to find that fascinating. Plus almost all his suggestions have worked out well. L just dotes on the guy.
Okay, so why is he working at Home Depot? I dunno, it’s none of my business. The “big town about 50 miles away” is actually a pretty small town, so maybe there just isn’t that much work. Maybe he likes working with tile but doesn’t like having to hustle new work all the time. I can identify with that. Maybe he’s not as good at it as he says he is. Don’t know.
But that’s not what’s important. At Home Depot, he’s really amazing. He knows his products. He certainly knows how one goes about tiling a floor, however good he may be at actually doing it himself, and he talks about it very intelligently. Most of all, he genuinely seems to love talking to customers about floor treatments. Your crazy Uncle Joel is somewhat mystified by this, but finds it respectable. I mean, he’s not just trying to get you to what you’re looking for and move you along. He’s having a good time.
He’s also handing out business cards on HD time, because after three years as a full-time employee there he is now a part-time employee, working 29 hours and not a second more. As are all the other orange-aprons in that store. Wanna guess why? I don’t know the details myself, since I don’t follow such things. But the one-word answer starts with an O.
He’s not the least bit happy about this. He’s also not the least bit reticent. He blames HD, which may be misplacing his anger. I don’t know anything about that part, but I know what is sometimes necessary in the face of unanswerable regulations if everybody in the company wants to stay employed at all. And I know who gets yelled at when that happens.
In my myriad arguments with various supporters of Obamacare I am continually told it won’t have a negative impact on employment. This usually comes from people I can immediately identify as not being business owners.
I had a surprise quintuple bypass a month ago. The staff at the hospital and I have had multiple conversations that somewhere was to be found some statement resemblant of “this shit is gonna fuck things up” from those in the health care field. I also have Obamacare stories…….but they make my chest hurt.
Quintuple bypass? That’s, like, one more than quadruple and I didn’t know you could have more than that.
I did not know that. Hope you’re doing okay, Buck?
The 5th has to do with a mammary artery graft. Trust me, it was a surprise to me as well. I went under for a triple bypass and when I woke up got two pipe bonus. Yeah, I’m doing pretty damn well, thanks. Surprisingly well.
Yeah, I know a guy like that. He’s named Carl, too. Knows a bit about darned near everything. Not only has books on most of it, has actually done most of it; but really isn’t good enough at anyone one of them to make a living at it.
Heinlein may have thought that, “Specialization is for insects,” but apparently most employers prefer it in humans, too.
Ol’ Carl will probably do well in the post-Great EMP/Nuke War/Zombie Dark Ages, but he’s screwed in 21st century America.
Hi Joel, I’m a reporter and am interested in talking with you about this Obamacare/Home Depot story. Please email me at eeichelberger@motherjones.com Many thanks!