Dear 53%:
I am one of you. My parents came to this country with nothing and built a small property management business that allowed them to save money, send their children through college without student loans. Thanks to them, I have a nice little nest egg saved up for retirement and have been able to start a nest egg for my son's college education.
I work for my parent's business now and do everything from painting walls, refinishing kitchen cabinetry & tiling backsplashes, landscaping, advertising vacancies & processing applications, tenant correspondence and managing handymen for those projects that I don't have the skills to do myself. My husband works in the financial sector. He doesn't make a huge amount of money at it (well below $ 75K) but between his gig and mine, we do okay.
I am also one of the 99%. My husband has been out of work for months. He looks for jobs everyday - scours the HR pages of companies in his chosen profession for open positions, sends out resumes, utilizes his networks with former associates to find new job leads, follows up, makes calls, etc., So far, nothing. We are getting unemployment benefits, but my husband is climbing the walls. He doesn't want a government check; he wants a job.
Furthermore, the industry sector ( mortgage brokerage for multifamily housing) he worked in has had a symbiotic relationship with Fannie Mae & Freddie Mac. When the two institutions go away (and they will) his sector of the the financial industry will dry up too. This is direct fallout from the shennanigans of the wall street that spurred the Bush bailout of 2008. His job was pretty specialized and he is not sure how to make his skill set translate to a job in another part of the financial sector.
I have some signifigant health problems that require taking medication daily. COBRA is unbelieveably expensive (we're looking for cheaper health insurance) but going without is simply not an option. Without it, an unexpected injury or illness could wipe us out financially. My medications are not cheap, but without them I couldn't function.
I've begun growing my own vegetables and raising chickens for eggs. This is not only because groceries keep getting more and more expensive. It's also because I hear about more and more people sickened by tainted meats, fruits, and vegetables. I feel like I can't trust the food supply to be safe for my family to eat.
I have a son who has been diagnosed with a receptive-communicative language disorder, sensory processing disorder, and autism spectrum disorder. He gets treatment through the local school system and the local regional center; these have helped tremendously. We are grateful that these services exist, but we worry about how state and federal budget cuts might affect us in the future. In the meantime, I volunteer at my son's school as much as possible. This is as much about helping my son's teacher & school as it is about trying to be available to him when he is having a hard time. He needs a full-time classroom aide, but the school cannot afford to provide him or any of the other special needs student with one. The teacher has her hands full trying to keep 22 five year-olds focused and out of trouble. I am one of many parents, mostly women, who keep the school running by doing admin jobs that cannot be covered by the school budget.
We are not free loaders or loafers. My husband and I been paying taxes we were teens; both in the form of income tax and payroll taxes. Any local, state or federal program that my family is currently availing themselves of are programs that my tax money has been paying into for decades. I am pissed about seeing the budgets of these programs gutted, while uber-mega-rich people and corporations keep getting tax break, after tax break, after tax break. Agencies the public relies on to keep them safe - FDA, USDA, EPA, OSHA - have been neutered by the power of lobbying groups who get to write their own rules by tossing loads of money at politican's election campaigns and calling in favors later.
Here's my 99% demands:
I want to have a greater voice in what my tax money is spent on.
I want to see big money taken out of elections, whether that be corporate, union or the private funds of the mega-wealthy
I want to see the old regulations on the financial and business sector put back into place, with new ones added as necessary.
I want to see the agencies that are supposed to protect the public - FDA, USDA, EPA, OSHA - fully funded and run by people who are on the side of the little guy.
I want to see the hedge fund tax loophole closed and the tax code reformed to make sure that everyone is paying their fair share.
I want to see people put back to work fixing and updating our infrastructure.
I want to see more tax money invested in our school systems, especially in math and science programs.
Are these crazy pinko lefty demands to turn America into a socialist state? I sure as hell don't think so.
