Money, Money, Money Part 3

I know there's this widely held belief that Jews are universally wealthy and that Jews "own everything."

You may find this shocking, but I'm living proof it's not true.

I'm not wealthy. Never have been. Neither has anyone in my immediate family. They're may be some money on my grandmother's side of the family, though I can't imagine anyone getting rich sewing schmatta. In any case, these distant relatives have wisely disassociated themselves from the Siegels.

My roots are distinctively working class.

My grandfather was a hack. Sorry, that's a term from a different age. A hack was a cab driver in NYC. I can't be sure, but I think he owned a medallion. But it is far more likely that he was gypsy, meaning not part of the taxi driver's union. And working totally on the sly. Given his disdain for organized groups as well as his penchant for betting the horses at Belmont, this seems most likely the case.

My father was also working class. And as I mentioned years ago, a convicted felon. Thrown in the Army brig for smoking the hooch, which is now legal in 5 states and probably making some other Jew (just not a relative of mine) a lot of money.

He also drove a cab.
And waited tables.
And went to night school to get a degree in accounting.

Through sheer determination, the kind that would shame a pitbull, he lifted himself, and his family, up to what is commonly referred to as middle class.

My wife, another Jew who also doesn't come from money and whose family shares similar working class roots, and I are now a little higher up the ladder. Not because anyone gave us anything -- there's never been anyone with anything to give -- but because we worked for it.

We've both been working since we were 14. We both put ourselves (largely) through college. And we both do our best to earn, save and spend wisely.

It would have been nice to have an Uncle Morty leave us 10,000 shares of Apple or 1000 acres in Northern California, but that didn't happen.

I don't know what the point of all this was other than to dispel the stereotype of the ubiquitously wealthy Jew.

But, in doing so, I'm also going to reinforce another stereotype. Because I'm still raging about President Fucknuckle's lopsided "tax reform" plan that subsidizes corporations and the super rich. And I feel about my savings and my earnings the same way some ammosexual feels about their guns.

"I'll give you what I've worked so hard for when you pry it from my cold, dead hands."