Dear Bernie Sanders, Sorry I'm The Problem With America

[ErikJ]

This op-ed is getting big airtime on TV. They just interviewed him on CNBC. Trending #1 on Fortune.com now.

Took him 15 years of near disasters and 16 hr days to finally get lucky and succeed, but hey, why cant everybody do that? It would seem with free college there would be a boom in small business. B/c they wouldnt graduate with $50,000 in debt.

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http://fortune.com/2016/02/22/dear-bernie-sorry-im-the-problem-with-america/

A tech CEO feels Berned.

I agree with Bernie Sanders. The economy is rigged. In fact, it’s what my father, who is very conservative, taught me about life. Some find it surprising because the general position of liberals seems to be that conservatives don’t realize, or won’t acknowledge, this rigged economy. But my dad’s advice to me time and time again was that the world was rigged and the only way I could make it was to work harder than the people who were in charge of the rigging.

A few years ago I was walking through Harvard Square when a woman holding flyers for Elizabeth Warren stepped in front of me. She asked if I thought the government should pay off student’s debts. I don’t think the government should, but, then again I never had student loans. No, it wasn’t because I was from a wealthy family. I never had student loans because I worked every semester I was in college, and during some summers, I worked two jobs. I did this because I thought the world was rigged against me.

I missed out on a lot, because I worked so much. I didn’t have the life like many of the college students I’ve hired in the last few years. They study what they love — philosophy, political science, art, regardless of whether or not they have good job prospects. They travel. Mostly they seem to go to Vietnam and Cambodia. They eat out a lot more than I did at their age. They know all the trendy restaurants and hot bars.

When I got out of college, I lived well below my means, saving $25,000 so I could start my first business. That business failed miserably. I ended up losing over $50,000 total. It took three years to pay off the credit card debt I wracked up.

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[RadiationTherapy]

1. I never understand the point of individual anecdotes in the face of systemic, institutional problems

If a black guy says he has never experienced racism, that - and I am a straight white guy - will have no bearing on my perceptions of institutional racism.

[GreatGazoo]

2. A strawman made from his own bruised ego

[kennetha]

3. Well, you know

Well, I do believe there is a big thing lacking in Bernie's message that this article sort of kind of gets at, but not all that clearly.

He doesn't really talk up self- sacrifice and struggle against the odds, or individual achievement much.

I mean you could have a leftist message that talked about removing the barriers and making things fairer so that your labor and ingenuity and hard work and self-sacrifice and all that will be rewarded. That makes it sound a lot less like I'm going go give you free stuff, without asking anything of you in return, except just to be.

Bernie hardly mentions that sort of stuff. Not sure why.

His message is all about what the evil millionaires and billionaires have done to rig the economy in their favor. He does sometimes mention small business, but kind of as an afterthought.

His message is a message of grievance and resentment, mostly. Kind of like Trumps, but aimed at a different enemy. That's why some Trumpets are drawn to Bernie as an alternative.

Bernie's is not really a message that in any way celebrates drive and initiative and creativity and self-sacrifice and entrepreneurship.

You don't have to be a right-wing loonies to celebrate those things. From the left, you frame government actions aimed to break down barriers as action designed to put a floor beneath your feet at a minimum, but a floor that yo can stand on while striving to reach your dreams, with the government floor never being designed to substitute for or undermine individual drive and achievement.

[zalinda]

4. Bernie comes from a place where he sees

no color, where everyone wants to work and people are basically good. That's his vision, and it's a vision that I wish every one had.

Z