I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent person.

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I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent person.

Posted: 4/21/05 at 8:24pm

Can you imagine working for a company that has little more than 500 employees and has the following statistics:

* 29 have been accused of spousal abuse
* 7 have been arrested for fraud
* 19 have been accused of writing bad checks
* 117 have directly or indirectly bankrupted at
least 2 businesses
* 3 have done time for assault
* 71 cannot get a credit card due to bad credit
* 14 have been arrested on drug-related charges
* 8 have been arrested for shoplifting
* 21 are currently defendants in lawsuits
* 84 have been arrested for drunk driving in the
last year.

Can you guess which organization this is?

Give up yet?

It's the 535 members of the United States Congress. The same group of Idiots that crank out hundreds of new laws each year designed to keep the rest of us in line.

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent person.

Posted: 4/21/05 at 8:27pm

how sad.

This is my signature.

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent person.

Posted: 4/21/05 at 8:28pm

Another reason I say **** them all & the horse they rode in on. These morons actually have the audacity to pass judgments on the ethics of others

Chico would have been proud of their Chutzpah

Poster Emeritus

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent person.

Posted: 4/21/05 at 8:33pm

That's quite appalling, true enough...but how can it be beneath you to hold office? It's an honor. We need more people like you, DGrant! Oust those morons, and run. You know you want to.

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent person.

Posted: 4/21/05 at 8:34pm

I'm running, Ellie - the wheel is spinning as fast as it can in the cage

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/21/05 at 8:39pm

I'm kind of curious as to how those numbers apply to the general population.

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/21/05 at 8:41pm

Interesting question, Plum - I'm sure all those statstics are available to those who look for them.

Updated On: 4/21/05 at 08:41 PM

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/21/05 at 8:42pm

I question how accurate that is.

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/21/05 at 8:44pm

ShuQ - possibly not very, but it does give one pause for thought about the people so willing to constrain the choices of the citizenry.

They could all very possibly be saintly little boys and girls being maliciously maligned by the do-nothing likes of people like myself.

#10

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/21/05 at 8:45pm

Wow. That's really terrible.

#11

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/21/05 at 9:14pm

That same forward has been going around for years. There must be some new members of Congress, no?

JOHN LITHGOW I just realized, your last name is Butz! Both "Norbert" AND "Butz" are in your name! You must have gotten picked on a lot as a child!

#12

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/21/05 at 9:46pm

In 2002:

1,067,200 people were arrested for driving under the influence.
357,600 were arrested for aggravated assault.
258,100 were arrested for fraud.
892,500 were arrested for larceny/theft. (That's all kinds, not just shoplifting.)
1,191,400 were arrested for drug abuse violations.

The U.S. population is 291,049,000 people.

So, percentages:

0.37% of people were arrested for drunk driving in 2002.
1.6% of Congressmen were arrested for drunk driving in their lifetimes.

0.12% of people were arrested for aggravated assault in 2002.
0.5% of Congressmen have done time for assault in their lifetimes.
5.4% of Congressmen have been accused of domestic abuse in their lifetimes.

0.08% of people were arrested for fraud in 2002.
1.3% of Congressmen were arrested for fraud in their lifetimes.

0.31% of people were arrested for larceny/theft in 2002.
1.5% of Congressmen have been arrested for shoplifting in their lifetimes.

0.4% of people were arrested for drug abuse charges in 2002.
2.6% of Congressmen have been arrested on drug-related charges in their lifetimes.

25.6% of credit-card holding families reported "hardly ever" paying of their balances.
13.3% of Congressmen can't get credit cards due to bad credit.

All in all, I'd say Congress is far less crime-ridden than the general American population. Of course, though we have government "of the people," we expect our politicians to be the best of us- the cream of the crop, rather than the dregs. So an ideal situation would be politicians who have never been arrested at all. But I don't think the situation we have now as horribly dire as it seems when you look at the numbers out of context.

Ironically, I procrastinated on my statistics homework to do this. All numbers are from the U.S. Census Bureau. Amazing resource.

Updated On: 4/21/05 at 09:46 PM

#13

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/21/05 at 11:44pm

Plum - were the numbers for congress from the same source, or were you just pulling general population data?

#14

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/21/05 at 11:51pm

I took the Congressional numbers from your initial post. I just divided the numbers by 535.

Updated On: 4/21/05 at 11:51 PM

#15

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/21/05 at 11:56pm

Well, as Ga pointed out, it's an old rabble-rousing e-mail - and as ShuQ pointed out, who knows the veracity of the figures. Honestly, I wonder if we could even find out. God knows they've been able to 'hide' things from the past before.

And ultimately, does it matter? To me, yes, it does. But perhaps that just comes from living a curtailed life within the sub-grouping of humanity that I landed in by happenstance. The bitter after-taste of disenfranchisement lingers long - and distorts the view.

#16

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/21/05 at 11:58pm

Yeah, it's just that numbers out of context drive me up the wall- used that way, they're just as bad as unsupported truisms. And the census bureau really is an amazing resource, so I couldn't help myself.

#17

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/22/05 at 12:01am

Of course you couldn't, which is why we love you

I would be curious as to what extent these scenarios might exist - and to whom they might pertain . . .

#18

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/22/05 at 1:05am

I am flabergasted

HUSSY POWER! ------ HUSSY POWER!

#19

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/22/05 at 8:14am

And DG--you know what the saddest fact connected to those congressional statistics is?

Who are the idiots who HIRED those lowlifes for their jobs?

Us.

#20

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/22/05 at 8:20am

Strange how the numbers haven't shifted in about 7 years, because the people in the 535 seats have. Repubs, Dems, Indeps, they are all politicians. We should face the fact that oftentimes charisma and charm are found in our most devious citizens.

I do not judge, as I personally am on 3 of those lists in the initial post. (And no, I haven't beaten anyone, stolen anything, or done any time)

Hamlet's father.

#21

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/22/05 at 9:44am

Ck, you got that right.
My home state had a governor who was SO clearly crooked, yet he was re-elected two times as governor. Then, he took a hiatus, came BACK and was handily re-elected. He's now serving time in jail for all sorts of money laundering and racketeering charges and whatnot.

And look no further than D.C.'s own Marion Berry as an example of a crook who gets elected.

#22

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/22/05 at 9:53am

bsinger - as I read through your post I kept thinking of Marion - and then there he was!

#23

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/22/05 at 10:13am

I wouldn't take the lawsuit numbers overly seriously, I think- lawsuits are practically part of the job description in public life. I'm not saying that none of the lawsuits in question have merit or mean the pols who are named in them did something wrong, but it's not a number that means much on its own.

#24

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/22/05 at 10:15am

Awesome thread, thanks.

There's always room for pathos - and jazz hands.

#25

re: I would want their job, but it's beneath me - and any other decent pers

Posted: 4/22/05 at 10:21am

Well, nothing like talking about corrupt politicians to bring up ol' Berry.

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