By Kris Ford
I’ve come to realize that the American dream really doesn’t apply to many people my age. Graduating from high school and college, getting a good job with health benefits, getting married, settling down in a newly bought home, and retiring after a reasonable amount of time, none of these really apply to me. I did exceptionally well in high school, so I managed to check off that part. I haven’t finished college because it was too expensive, but 15% of my monthly income goes toward paying off the one year I was able to complete.
Since I haven’t finished college, it’s extremely difficult for me to move up in my field. Can’t check off that part. My state laws do not allow my partner and I to get married, so that’s something else I can’t check off. Since such a big chunk of my income goes toward paying off the student loans from that unfinished degree, I’m unlikely to be able to save up enough money for a down payment on a house.
In New Orleans, insurance rates are so high after the storm that even if managed to eke out a mortgage payment that I could afford, I’d be fairly likely to increase that payment by half just to keep the place reasonably insured. Social Security isn’t looking like a viable option for retirement, either.
Now I’m 25 and deeply in debt for a partial education that did me no good. I am a government worker, but I’m the lowest on the totem pole with little or no hope of earning a promotion. I’m good at my job, but there isn’t any way to move up. Most of what I do is entirely above and beyond my job description, and it took me two whole years to even get full time. I still have no health insurance.
Is this the American dream I was brought up to aspire to? I don’t think so. I want to live in an America where those of us who do the legwork of making this country run on a day to day basis get our due. The nurses, the paramedics, the bus drivers, the postal workers, the sanitation workers, all of us. I hope that by being an active, vocal member of my union I can help effect a change in American social political practice.
Less millionaires complaining to billionaires that they didn’t get they tax breaks. More making sure that our neighborhoods have adequate public transit, and that the teachers in our children’s schools are paid well for their hard work. I’m a member of my union because I believe that this disconcerting trend can be cut short.
