So, my best friend posted this on facebook the other day and I wanted to share:
My favorite part is when I read about people saying I could have graduated without debt if I wasn't lazy and worked during college. I dunno but my school we were in school 6 months and worked 6 months and when I was in school I had 3 on campus jobs (residential tutor to get a free room, tutor at the school and a grader). I also delivered pizza. On my work terms I was a co-op engineer and when I worked in the plant I had to work 7 days a week for 90 days straight all minimum 12 hour shifts. Not quite sure how I could have fit more jobs in there but my school cost 130k and I managed to graduate with about 60k in debt. Luckily the interest only payments for the first few years only raised the debt to about 70k before I was making enough to start making a dent on the principal. 11 years later and I'm all the way back down to just under what I started with!! Hooray! Unlike my parents who didn't/couldn't? afford to help with school I am forcing us to save to help with our kid(s). I really struggled with this because I was raised that if you want something your parents don't pay for it you need to get a job and get it yourself but at the same time I don't expect my kids to have 100k saved up at age 18. I worked legally since I was 14 and I fell a little short
I was two grades below this guy, and other than going to the same high school, I also went to the same college. We had a lot of fun, but that post doesn’t even begin to do his work ethic justice.
Oh, and he was also valedictorian of his class. And he graduated college with honors. That’s certainly not easy, and especially not when you’re working many nights and most every weekend, as I watched him do. And for awhile after he had graduated with an engineering degree and had the corresponding level of employment, he was still delivering pizzas on the side.
So, when it comes to understanding why so many in my generation express reluctance to support Clinton or any candidate for that matter, this is partly why. Because nobody is really out there speaking like they have a full grasp of where the concerns this generation faces truly spring from. Nobody is out there giving this generation the credit it deserves for maintaining a strong work ethic, in spite of the economic conditions we weren’t exactly responsible for creating. Well, almost nobody.
When it comes to this General election season, there is one candidate who has offered serious policy plans to address these important issues like making college affordable. And if anyone wants proof of that, one needs only look at this very site, where one of Clinton’s own campaign advisors fielded questions on Clinton’s extensive college affordability plan.
There is only one candidate out there who recognizes that, the struggles regular Americans face, in paying for college, or perhaps paying their mortgage or paying for food on the table, falling a little short and needing a little help to pay for these things, does not mean that these people are lazy and unwilling to work for it.
When Donald Trump talks about struggling Americans, he has absolutely no idea what he is talking about. And this is why: as someone who was squandered millions, he could never relate to the problems faced by someone who has had to work his ass off from an early age and earned every bit of what he has. My friend comes from a white working class household, the kind of group that is apparently more attracted to Trump; but Trump’s rhetoric proves that he has no idea what their day-to-day struggle is really like, as all he offers them are conciliatory sound bytes.
And this election season, a lot of focus has been on the Millennial generation, not because of the question of who they are gonna choose, but how much will they turn out?
I think how much they turn out is still very much in play, this is one of the demographics where there is still a lot of room to grow. But when these voters talk about not being able to feel enthused about either candidate right now, these experiences like what my friend wrote about are what is on the top of their minds. Once we recognize that, then the message that Clinton needs to send becomes clear.
When it comes to the issues the younger generation face and is worried about, Clinton’s plans are not only solid, but they come from a real understanding of what it really means to have to work from the bottom up. Let’s help Hillary make sure the next generation does not have to be saddled with the kinds of financial burdens our own has to deal with, just because we were striving for a better quality of life.