Sam, it has nothing to do with resentment. I am not a resentful person. I was dealt a good hand in life and have been appreciative of it, all my life. I was born strong and healthy and in the United States and in Northern California-lol!
And I was not poor as a kid. We were pretty much middle class. But starting in high school when my parents got divorced and my mom had to make it on her own, then we were pretty poor.
What I am concerned about, and have always been concerned about, were others, not me. I don't think like that as my life has been pretty satisfying all in all. But I have spent my life rubbing elbows with the poor and have been poor and seen poor and I don't like it. And my mom, one of thirteen children was very poor and she lived though the great depression and she told me stories about how horrible it was. And I have read Charles Dickens-lol
Look at some history Sam. History before unions. It was a horrible time because businesses took advantage of the workers in both salary and working conditions. Many working conditions were very dangerous. Unions spawned the middle class and when Reagan and the Republicans started getting rid of them, they went from about 35% of the workforce down to about 6% today, a graph correlating the decline in the middle class is almost 100% correlated with the decline in the unions.
We are tolerating one of the worst income inequalities in the world. And it is because 50 years of Republican rule has empowered the rich, and allowed the rich, to more or less run the country by what is best for them e.g. busting unions, regulations and getting huge tax benefits and welfare and control of congress and using the workers as for their personal benefit.
And it is nuts, we do not have affordable education, and universal health care. That is nuts, and we have to see it as nuts. Especially as I keep mentioning, we just pissed away 20 trillion dollars on obscene tax cuts for the rich and two stupid ass wars and spending trillions recovering from the financial calamity of 08, caused by Bush's indulgence in fraud by the banks and Wall street.
We need to help the poor. That should be our top concern after defense. And for 50 years the Republicans have been selling us a line of bullshit about supply side economics that is also nuts. We need to start selling the Democratic story of Keynesian economics as told by economists like Krugman and Stigltiz.
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| | We weren't wealthy and we weren't poor. In those days, it wasn't very expensive to live on Capitol Hill. I shared an apartment with two other interns, I think we paid maybe $100/month apiece. Maybe a little more than that, I don't recall. It was a "garden" apartment--in the basement, but with a window out to the East Capitol Street. More like a large dorm room, but with a small kitchen as well.
It is pretty obvious that "everyone" can't be an intern, there are only a limited number of spots. I am sorry your family didn't have any money. It isn't a reason to make statements that aren't true or to be ruled by resentment; that just makes you like a Republican. You can be better than that. |
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