Yesterday I wrote: No American Should Live Paycheck to Paycheck, where I pointed out:
78% of Americans live Paycheck to Paycheck and
Four in 10 adults say they couldn’t produce $400 in an emergency without sliding into debt or selling something
We can fight the “Trump Economy is Great” theme with this: “If it’s so great, why are nearly 80% of Americans living paycheck to paycheck.”
Follow up with — If it’s so great Why are Republicans making it worse by killing healthcare and stopping any minimum wage rise?
Today, AOC has a great twitter thread on the same theme, using her very recent waitress experience, and going after the idea that struggling to get by is caused by “poor character.”
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC)
5/11/19, 1:03 PM
Going from waitressing a year ago to now carries a LOT of life-adjustments.
But 3 paychecks in has shown me how 1 of the greatest scams in US is the idea that financial struggle is due to “poor character.”
It’s a huge myth designed to keep people from empowering themselves. /1
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Then she shows how “budgeting” advice completely misses the point and shames people:
5/11/19, 1:38 PM
It’s a big part of what makes this Chase tweet [showing what you can supposedly give up to live more securely] so bad.
It’s the idea that if you choose to have any expense beyond mere animalistic survival - an iced coffee, a cab after a 18hr shift on your feet - you deserve suffering, eviction, or skipped medicine.
You don’t. Nobody does. pic.twitter.com/XKo6ayPfRJ
Then listing our goals:
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5/11/19, 2:15 PM
Ultimately, living in a moral society, a good nation, means establishing some basic standards of dignity:
- healthcare as a right
- a living wage
- public education that prepares for civil society + economy (which now shld incl college)
- all people having power in the economy
Read the whole thread
And repeat after me:
No American should live paycheck to paycheck.
No American should plunged into debt by a $400 medical bill.
Democrats will fix this.