I do not want “free stuff”, I
honestly do not know of any Sanders supporter who just wants to be
given anything, despite the claim. We want stuff, like the rest of
the world, but we also accept that nothing in life is free,
everything costs money. But there is one thing that we want that is
free, a chance. A chance to start our adult life free of debt, the
ability to earn money, to own a home, live the American Dream. We
want a life where we aren't burdened by student loan debt, just to
get into an entry level job, or a job that requires slaving away for
barely enough to keep food on the table.
I hear this from conservatives and
Clinton supporters, liberals want free stuff. From the Clinton camp,
Sanders supporters want free stuff. No, we want a better world, I
want a life which requires slightly less strategy to live than a war
requires to survive. I am not alone in this. Many people will say
live within your means, but lets think about this. For many people,
their means are roughly $220 a week, I was barely scraping by on that
without a wife and kid(s). That afforded me the opportunity to move
back in with the parents, keep up a cell phone bill, and help out
with their standard of living (help with utilities, groceries, etc)
but not enough to do much else.
Oh I could have done other things, I
could have went out or something, but the truth was, by the time I
got done working 60-70+ hours a week, I was often too spent to do
much of anything. You see, when your base means is around $200 a
week, you have to work that overtime when it comes to do anything.
So you are always in a constant struggle, lack of money, or lack of
time/energy to do anything. That needs to change, that needs to be
different. People need down time, they need time and energy to meet
people, to get out, to enjoy life. Jobs need to pay enough that 40
hours a week can support a person, and their family. This needs to
be now, not in a decade.
We need a single payer health care
option, so the specter of injury or illness does not bankrupt a
person. The PPACA was a good start, but because of failings on a
state level, it is no where near effective enough. The merits of a
single payer system have been listed repeatedly, and honestly, I do
not have anything more to add to the debate. Anything I would say or
add is just beating a dead horse, time to wait for the water to rise
so it gets washed away. I do not want “free health care”, I want
to be afforded a situation where not only could I afford it on my
own without a great deal of financial suffering, but I also want
protection from not being able to afford it. Something, that as good
as the PPACA is, does not do.
Education, is needed. With many jobs
needing a formal secondary education, specific certifications, and
specialized training, education needs to be affordable. For profit
education is fine in my book, but not as it stands today. Like
everything else, how much profit is too much profit? At the rate it
is going many people are being disqualified from jobs they could make
a living at, or be happy doing, simply because they cannot afford to
pay for the education they have with them. I could see myself
working on a farm again, if the pay was there. I could be content
working security, if I could support myself with it. I greatly
enjoyed both lines of work, I was good at both jobs, but ultimately,
the measuring stick of being a good job is dependent on pay. But
education, we want free education, I have never heard a Sanders
supporter say that, even I haven't said that. I do not expect that
my college loans will be forgiven, I would not want them forgiven.
It is a debt I chose to incur, it is one I must repay on my own.
With a decent paying job, it is something that is within reach.
Do you see where this is going? It has
recently been claimed that the Sanders camp supports him because free
stuff. I am sure that if you dig deep enough, find someone young
enough, you might find someone who wants free stuff that is going to
fight for him, because free stuff. But the majority, we don't want
free stuff (if I wanted free stuff, I know where to go find it), what
we want is the opportunity to make our own way in the world.
Something that so many currently feel is not achievable. Sorry, but
all the feel good, boot strapping stories do little for people down
here in the low man's land. They are merely anecdotal stories, fairy
tales if you will. Sure, someone somewhere might get lucky enough,
while putting in the hard work, but lets all be real, if hard work,
pulling yourself up was all it ever took, then why aren't we all up
there? Why is it that the 1% are people like me, or even like you?
Sanders has tapped into it, this notion that hard work is part of the
solution, a little luck helps, but a level playing field will win the
day. To level that playing field we need to do something with income
inequality, taxes, heath care, education, a living wage, and jobs.
You can jump the minimum wage today,
and you will gain ground in the economy. But imagine we raise the
wage, plus put a massive spending package forward to vastly
improve/upgrade our infrastructure today, reversing the more people
looking for less jobs trend. Sure, companies would continue the
trend of moving jobs away, as they have since President Clinton sold
us out to free trade, but with a large enough package of spending on
everything (roads, levees, dams, the electrical grid, cable/internet
lines, bridges, converting to green energy), you could offset those
losses. Nothing free there, people work, people make a good living,
bills get paid, taxes are paid (if you are into that kind of thing),
and all is right with the world. People start getting ahead, and
that is what we need.
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