It's become clear to me in the past few months that I cannot afford to get a job. Yes, you read that right. I'm a 23 year old college student who can't get a job, not because no one's hiring, but because I would actually lose a significant amount of money if I worked. Follow me past the sideways loop integral symbols to find out why.
First thing's first: I'm a type one diabetic. Without medication, I might last a couple weeks before dying of diabetic ketoacidosis - literally, my body eating itself to death.
Secondly: I live in Texas. This will become important later.
Thirdly: I am uninsured, at least by traditional insurance. I currently get my medications and doctor visits insured by the city of Austin's low-income medical program. Thank God for it.
Now, here's the thing. If I get a job, I lose my insurance. I don't expect to be able to get health insurance flipping burgers thanks to President Obama's moratorium on the employer mandate in Obamacare. I can't get Medicaid because I live in Texas and our lovely legislature and governor decided not to expand it. If I lose my insurance, I have to pay roughly $800 per month for my insulin. Therefore, I'd be making $480 per month for the duration of my employment, assuming I made $8/hr and worked 40 hours a week.
Well, yay! you might say. $480 isn't anything to sneeze at. It'd pay more than half my rent, even. But here's the thing: I can't work a full time job in the middle of engineering school. It's physically impossible to do it and still pass your classes. You have projects, team meetings, homeworks, computer programs, and at the end of the day, you still have to study. No, I won't be able to keep a job during the fall semester, which is my last semester in college.
Well, Shroomy, why don't you just reapply for the program when classes resume? Alas. One must be unemployed for a duration in order to qualify. I think it's three months. That's three months sans job and sans insurance.
And what about internships? you might ask. It's true, engineering internships pay pretty well. Unfortunately, it'd require moving expenses, since there are no aerospace jobs anywhere near Austin. They also don't provide benefits. This is the real kicker, since internships are often the gateway to employment as a young engineering student just starting his career.
Okay, so what about your father, LC? You can get on his insurance. It's true, I could - during open enrollment. That's a ways away. And it's not like my dad could pay my premium. He's even poorer than I am.
See, I want to work. I really do. I want to earn some spending money so I can celebrate my graduation and have the first vacation of my entire life. (Yes, I've never been on vacation. We could never afford it.) But I can't. I can't contribute to the economy because the people in power have found the absolute perfect recipe to screw me over and prevent me from doing so.
And you know what the final kick in the teeth is? I'm called lazy and unproductive. Yeah.