Bernie Sanders: Talkin' 'Bout A Revolution

[davidthegnome]

36. Excellent post.

Ironically, I don't live in a poor neighborhood - but then, it sure isn't my home, either. My parents have worked their whole lives to get where they are now - three years away from retirement, a nice, modest home on the lake... and two of their long since adult children living with them. I often think of ways that I could help them retire sooner, or more comfortably, when they finally do retire. What it comes down to though, is that I can't. Not unless I get extremely lucky, like winning the powerball or something.

It shocked the hell out of me when I learned in sociology that my parents combined income (before taxes) of somewhere around one hundred thousand a year (closer to 55-60 after taxes) was only "average working middle class". I couldn't even imagine earning that much. I started working fourteen years ago, at sixteen - washing dishes for a Chinese Restaurant where cooks swore at me in a language I didn't understand. The conditions were terrible, minimum wage was 5.65 an hour, there was smoke everywhere, broken beer bottles in the urinals I had to clean, so much "hard work" that I began to see just what "adulthood" was going to be like, as one of the 99%.

For some reason, back then, I had the crazy notion that hard work was going to earn me a living. That, if I didn't want to borrow a fortune to go to school, perhaps I could save enough money to pay for it myself. Then I became aware of what car payments did to my monthly income, or what car insurance did to it. I became aware of things like paying rent, heating oil, electricity, gas, or grocery bills. The only reason I never ended up in a homeless shelter or on the street was that I had parents who cared. Even now - at thirty, it's much the same.

Now, fourteen years later... I think I have somewhat of a grasp of the reality of the situation. A GED education didn't get me very far - and a year of college (on top of my other expenses - and the lack of decent jobs) buried me up to my eyeballs in debt. I'm thirty years old, living with mommy and daddy (I love them like crazy, but I long for some independence) and working for a hotel where I earn eight dollars an hour as a front desk clerk.

At sixteen, I would have thought eight dollars an hour - or the 9.50 I once earned with a temporary telemarketing job... I would have thought that was a lot of money. Now? Now I work so I can pay for my car and my gas, so I can get to work. Now I work for what little I might be able to save for my own son's education, for whatever ridiculously small amount I might be able to put away towards one day going back to school.

There are huge positives in my life - most of them revolve around my family and the fact that I have a home to live in and don't really have to worry about whether I'll be able to pay for food. Most of them revolve around the wonderful people, courageous people I know who work hard for their own families.

It makes me grimace though, when I hear my fellow employees spout fox news talking points, or bitch about that evil socialist Obama. A co-worker with four children, who's husband is suffering from severe clinical depression, who just went through surgery for a bad knee... tells me, with a straight face, "No, I'm not going to sign up for Obamacare. Obama sucks! He just wants to take everything we have! Nope, we're going to work our way out of our mess.." I'm tempted to tell her not to hold her breath, but I just shrug and offer my sympathies, because she's a hard working mom, even if she is kind of ignorant. She has a four year degree in early childhood education - and makes as much as I do, eight dollars an hour, no benefits, just lost medicaid and food stamps because she got a job.

How do we start a revolution? It's real simple, actually. We have to offer people a chance at something better, hope of a better life, of hard work earning a living, of the ability to live without the heart rending, mind-boggling stress of working shitty jobs for just enough money to barely get by - or, in even more cases, to not get by at all without help.

We have to prove we can do this, demonstrate it, show it off, sell it, wave it, shout it, advertise it... make it happen.

Until we can do that, the majority will be working too hard and suffering too much stress and economic hardship to believe their votes can actually accomplish anything meaningful. This is especially the case when almost all of our politicians are millionaires, or members of the 1%.