2016 Postmortem
Showing Original Post only (View all)I will never own a home. I will probably never save enough in a 401k. [View all]
I'm about to turn thirty. My mom and dad when they were my age already had 2 kids and while we weren't rich we had a home in outskirts of Boston and we were happy.
My dad was able to go to school at nights to get his MBA, he worked really hard scraping together what he could so that my mom could stay home with the kids.
We worked and saved and he got better and better jobs that paid better, eventually we bought a home in the burbs. It was huge compared to the tiny apartment we all shared. I had my own room, my mom got and dad BOTH got cars. They were 35 maybe 37 at this time. They saved, we were lucky that both my sister and I could go to undergrad colleges debt free.
I will never know this in my lifetime. I've come to realize that we are now looking at an economy in which I will continue to make just enough to pay my rent, pay off my debt and buy food. I realize now that when people refuse to fight for a minimum wage increase for their fellow American that we have finally dived off the deep end, we have finally insulated the right amount of middle class voters from the horrors of the world that they only wonder why someone flipping burgers would have the audacity to ask for 15 dollars an hour.
I realize that I may never have kids. Not because I don't want them, I do. But I can't afford to take care of myself let alone another person. If I do have kids I doubt very much I will see half the opportunity for work that my father will. I've been temping for a year, haven't had a real job in almost two since the non-profit I was at ran out of federal funding (thanks Republicans).
I realize that my generation has been deferred. Too many boomers wanting too much for too long. I'm sorry if that upsets or incenses you but it's the truth. People climbed the corporate ladder, found themselves in positions of power then consolidated that money and power till only a small group of interconnected people could grab hold. Companies took massive federal loans then never hired anyone, using that money to pad bottom lines and fund bonus pays for executives.
When you tell me that my vote for Bernie Sanders is a waste, when you laugh and chastise me and my generation for wanting free stuff, or for being idealistic. Just remember really what you are doing is insulting us for trying to make this country what it was supposed to be, the land of opportunity. Just because you are already at the table eating doesn't mean they are not hungry people waiting for a chance to sit a the table.
