YAMPT: Politics + Job = No Way?

[Aikouka]

Read First:
First off, a bit of an explanation of the title. YAMPT is my little cute name for "Yet Another Misplaced Political Thread." Although I outright call this thread political, I don't want political arguments nor do I necessarily want your political leanings. This thread is more about you, but politics are inherent in the discussion. So please, avoid discussions on politics, it's about your decisions!


Okay, a tiny bit of background. The idea for this came up from a conversation I was having with a girl last night. Essentially, I joked about her paying part of my salary and I never really said why. Then I admitted it's because I work with government contracts (to be really vague about it), and she proceeded to flip out on me and consider me a "government lap dog" (my words, not hers) because of where I work. Note that I am not physically employed by the United States government, but I prefer not to talk about exactly what I do.

So I talk to a male friend later that night and we have a history of getting into political scuffles and such. Well, I mentioned how this girl got all snippy and made illogical and inane remarks about how I'm a government lap dog and how you should kill the president for what he's done. Well, he proceeded to tell me that I have to be conservative to work where I work because I "make items that kill people" (this is also an incredibly brash remark and not 100% true) and a true liberal would never do that. Now, this took me aback a bit, because personally... my job is my job. I try not to let things (except web forums ) interfere with my work.

Now, what would you do? Would you let a job go because it didn't necessarily align perfectly with your political ideals? Note that this excludes things that you're absolutely against and things that are against your party (just to avoid obvious answers... such as a Democrat working for a Republican's campaign... that might be a little odd).

EDIT: Added the ever popular ATOT MOAR POLE!

 

[crystal]

It depends on the job and what conficts it would cause.

I am sure you could think off a few jobs you will not take no matter what.

 

[Phokus]

So what you're saying is, you're a liberal who works for a defense contractor?

 

[yllus]

I suppose that I wouldn't work for Philip Morris or other tobacco companies. Past that, a job is a job.

 

[Phokus]

Well, if you're a pacifist, i don't see why you would work at a defense contractor. I'm going to assume you aren't.

I don't consider myself a pacifist, but i personally probably wouldn't work at a defense contractor because of the corruption element. Too much money has been poured into projects that just don't work (i.e. star wars/missle defense) and the contractors know they'll be able to scam the government/tax payers out of billions/trillions of dollars because they can. I think the GAO found out that about a trillion dollars was 'unaccounted for' from the defense dept. a few years back.

 

[ScottFern]

I assume you work for the DMV?

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: Phokus
So what you're saying is, you're a liberal who works for a defense contractor?

I'm a mild conservative who works for a defense contractor . My friend was going on about how you'd have to be such, because a true liberal would never do that job .

EDIT: Oh and Phokus, I am a pacifistic person in my own personal nature. So pacifistic that I won't play (tackle) football cause I wouldn't want to accidentally hurt someone . Although, I don't abhor war completely, there are times where even the quietest and gentlest of animals must fight back or be eaten!

 

[aswedc]

It's called a "defense contractor", not an "offense contractor". If other people aren't using what you make for its correct purpose, that's on them.

 

[Phokus]

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Originally posted by: Phokus
So what you're saying is, you're a liberal who works for a defense contractor?

I'm a mild conservative who works for a defense contractor . My friend was going on about how you'd have to be such, because a true liberal would never do that job .

I don't see what the problem is then. Just remember that your company is probably scamming us taxpayers out of trillions of dollars

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: Phokus
I don't see what the problem is then. Just remember that your company is probably scamming us taxpayers out of trillions of dollars

Well, it goes into my pocket (among other people's) and that in turn flows back into the economy.

Also, let me make this remark that I also made to my friend and kind of alluded to in the original post... defense contractors do not just make missiles and bombs and other killing devices. For example, Boeing makes a fairly sizable amount of commercial airliners. I think everyone's heard of a 747 before. Lockheed Martin has mail sorters that probably sort every single piece of mail that you see in the US and maybe other countries. Didn't Boeing also get that contract for the surveillance on the Mexico-US border a couple months ago?

There's such a negative stigmatism against anything that could possibly be related to war right now in the US. On a bit of an off-topic note, I just hope the Iraqi soldiers don't get treated like the Vietnam veterans did because of the anti-war sentiment.