David Caldwell Jr. - "All About the Money" (clip)
Interviewed by Blanche Brown on April 24, 2012
Blanche Brown (BB): And how do you think that is like today?
David Caldwell, Jr. (DC): I think it’s changed, more independent. More people that own businesses, their own identities, a lot of respect and a lot of courage–and that’s respect for themselves and a lot of courage and don’t forget that pride and that ego. I don’t think we are as… there are still a few of us that still got that division of, “I’m too proud to ask.” We still have those that, “I’ve got to feed my family. I’ve got to do what I’ve got to do,” but many of them now are, “If I’ve got to steal or kill to feed my family, I’m gonna do it.” The others are saying, “Well we need to find another way to feed them.” That’s what’s happening and so that’s I think that’s the change and then we don’t care that much about life as we did back then. Just we are day to day. We’re no longer a…well we’re a capitalistic society now and that you know before we had pride and everything, now the only thing we like more than a dollar is a dollar and a quarter, and we don’t care where it comes from now. You know you couldn’t pay us to buy something from Germany or Russia or anybody and now we don’t care. Politics makes strange bedfellows.
BB: Why do you think that is? Just because of the way that our economics is?
DC: Yeah and look at our, people gotta…Abraham Lincoln didn’t run for President to get rich. George Washington didn’t. None of the senators, Jefferson, Johnson, and them were in there for the money. But look at them now. Everyone that we have in office is just about a millionaire. Look at the guys on the state level that have, you know, houses in their home counties and then they have the deals in Washington. All these different things are coming up. I’ve always said they should build a big dormitory in Washington and run a bus…
BB: Yeah!
DC: The bus is leaving from the dormitory to the Senate and it’s going back and forth. You know, just like they’re talking about John Edwards is just deciding to stop getting his $500 haircuts. Come on now. These are the type of things that are happening. You know, the guy up in New Jersey was taking the helicopter. Was it the Governor or whatever taking the helicopter to see his son play soccer somewhere? You know, these things, it’s all about the money. When everybody else was losing money, all these politicians were still getting raises. Next election: every President on down, every salary is going to be cut in half all the way down. All your benefits are gonna be cut in half. See how many run.
BB: See how much money we could use for other things.
DC: Exactly. Exactly. These guys are making as much money as much money as third world countries you know.
BB: Making $400,000 a year. How many children’s educations is that?
DC: And only showing up for half the meetings.
BB: Yeah, seriously.
DC: That’s what I’m talking about. You take three months off every year and made your $400,000. Plus most of them have farms and businesses back home that are going on. So, that’s not gonna work. That’s something that…that’s what’s hurting us right there. I hate to say it but these guys go in there to get the money and don’t tell me they don’t. If they didn’t, they’d say I don’t want my raise. I haven’t heard of anybody turning down a raise, from the President on down nobody’s turned down a raise. Look at your local politicians. Same thing with them. You know, look at the different things they do. There’s a few in there that want to do it but you still have a large amount that are…that have an ulterior motive because they are not in there for all of the people. And some of them are in there for just a certain group of people and if you do not happen to be in that group, shame on you. Absolutely.
