So I had some family repost a frustrating image from ‘nation in distress’ on Facebook. It was this picture.
My initial reaction was just a simple post pointing out that the protesters were, in fact, exercising their first amendment rights of protest and free speech. Rights that found their origins in the same time as the first image. It just seemed a little ironic to me. But the response I got was sure, protesting is fine. But asking for free stuff? Come on, get a life. Work hard. Your mom did, I did too.
Missing the point entirely, obviously.
Now, as it is 2017, in the year of Our Lord of the Dumpster Fire, I refuse to let family post ignorant and hypocritical tripe without calling them to task as best I can manage. So I responded. With a researched and cited breakdown of why she was wrong and why ‘working hard’ today is, in fact, harder than it has been in the last 40 years. Included are stats on minimum wage, average rent prices, and average university cost. This is by no means an exhaustive post but I thought that the info in it (the sourced facts mostly, maybe the pre-adjusted numbers) might be of use to other folks with similarly exhausting people in their lives. Please feel free to use whatever wherever whenever with any of it.
First of all it is disingenuous to say that they are asking for *free* anything. The protest in the picture is asking for “free education” in a very specific context. It is asking for education that does not put students in debt (see the sign in the back “NOT DEBT” as well as the text under the words “FREE EDUCATION” - “TAX THE RICH”). The pictured protest is specifically calling for an education system that is funded by taxpayer dollars. My dollars, your dollars, the protesters’ dollars. If that is “free stuff” then, by extension, any tax payer or worker funded program is “free stuff”. This includes things like social security, unemployment, medicare, medicaid, disability, WIC, K-12 public education, our roads and highways, the postal system, the police force and fire departments, etc. So, sure, if you’ve never partaken in any of these “free” programs then by all means, criticize the protesters for asking for “free stuff”. But if you have ever benefited then it feels a little hypocritical.
As for saying “get a life work hard”? As if the younger generations (my generation? by extension me?) don’t or haven’t? I feel like you’re being a bit blind there, too. The federal minimum wage is currently $7.25 and if you compare that to historical minimum wages (adjusted for inflation) it’s appalling. Minimum wage was $2.65 in 1978 - adjusted for inflation that would be about $9.75. 1981? $3.35 an hour which would be adjusted to $8.85. 1997? $5.15 adjusted to $7.70. And now it’s $7.25. It has been doing down. The purchasing power of Americans has gone down over the last 40 years and what average Americans are able to afford is a lot less. In the same timespan the average adjusted rent in the United States has gone from $670/mo in 1980 to $928/mo as estimated in 2015.
College tuition, what these protesters are talking about, is even more devastating. For the '16/'17 school year the average price of room/board/tuition at a public university in the US is estimated to be around $20,090 (up from $15,800 in '08/'09). In '96/'97 it was $11,000. '80/'81? $7,000. And in '77/'78? $7,700. Forty years ago tuition in a public university was less than half of what it is today while minimum wage was, effectively, higher. That is the “free stuff” these protesters were looking for.
In 1981 you could work a full time job, for minimum wage, and afford an average apartment in the US. ($536 as an average month’s gross income at the time vs. $253 a month average rent). That is unrealistic today.
Today you can work a full time job, earning minimum wage, and your average gross income per month would be $1,160. The average apartment rents for $928. With taxes and other deductions you wouldn’t have money left to eat.
In 1978 you could work a full time job, for minimum wage, and save up enough every summer to put a sizable dent in your room/board/tuition at an average public university. ($424 as an average month gross income at the time vs. $2,106 average schooling cost.)
Today, with an average year of university costing $20,090 for tuition, room, and board, you could work a full time minimum wage job, year round, and still only pull down an annual gross income of $15,080.
It is disingenuous and hurtful to say that we should just get a life and “work hard”. We have lives. And we are working hard. But, by the numbers, it is harder work for less payout than generations that came before us.
(All of the data and stats I used came from the following pages:
My US History teacher told my that 90% of illegal Mexican immigrants are criminals. When I told him he was wrong, he asked me to pull out my statistics, which of course I didn’t have because what kind of high school-er walks around with crime statistics for illegal immigrants. Anyone wanna help me school this bitch?
5 Shocking US Statistics That Prove Working in America Sucks
5 Shocking US Statistics That Prove Working in America Sucks
We Hate Our Jobs, US Statistics Say via Flickr by Allispossible.org.uk
Most of us are recovering from a well-deserved day off, Labor Day. It is one of those holidays that we anticipate and thoroughly enjoy, but why do we even have it? Yeah, I know it has something to do with labor, as in work. But I never really gave it much thought.
What we do know is that when we go back to the job, many of…
5 Shocking US Statistics That Prove Working in America Sucks
5 Shocking US Statistics That Prove Working in America Sucks
We Hate Our Jobs, US Statistics Say via Flickr by Allispossible.org.uk
Most of us are recovering from a well-deserved day off, Labor Day. It is one of those holidays that we anticipate and thoroughly enjoy, but why do we even have it? Yeah, I know it has something to do with labor, as in work. But I never really gave it much thought.
What we do know is that when we go back to the job, many of…
