“You try making $15,000 a year and having money to put away as an investment. They simply don’t have enough…

If Capitalism cannot be regulated so that the top 20% of the population owns a reasonable portion of the national wealth — not the current 85% — then we should use another economic system.”

I’m in favor of overhauling the tax code and expanding the EITC to non-heads-of-household to supplement the wages of low earners. It shifts the cost of providing for the working poor from the private sector to the government and would be inexpensive to manage because our tax code is actually pretty efficient.

But that’s just the working poor. I see so many of my peers living paycheck to paycheck and they’re just blowing money on frivolous things instead of consistently paying down debt or investing for their retirement. The American economy is not just the working poor and the fabulously wealthy. In fact, most Americans are either working class, middle class, or upper middle class.

Also, that statistic is an incomplete picture of our national wealth. Social Security and Medicare benefits are a significant asset to many retirees and the net present value of those programs aren’t factored. In any case, there are many households that could save a significant % of their income and don’t bother to. I have very little sympathy for them.

“Again, our economic system is created by us — by people. Why the fuck would people want an economic system that devalues people into something other than people?

…We’re all things here to serve you. Again. Listen to yourself. I absolutely think about the employees cooking, cleaning, serving. I was one of them. And if I wasn’t — it doesn’t matter, because of a thing we “things” call empathy. Ever heard of it?”

People treat other people differently based on their relationship. I have no problem lending my friend money if he’s in a tight spot because he’s my friend. But if a random stranger walks up to me and asks to borrow cash, would you think it unreasonable if I were to refuse?

Let’s use another example because I think you’re imagining me to be one of those asshole diners who are rude, excessively demanding and don’t tip well (I am none of those things, and I tip quite well) and let’s go with a more neutral example: going to a bank to get a loan.

When I go to the bank, I’m not going there to be friends with the loan officer. Unsurprisingly, the loan officer is not going to try and become friends with me. We might exchange pleasantries but neither of us are there to truly get to know each other. We’re just two people on opposite sides of a transaction. That’s it.

Re: Re: the Wagner Act. It might suck that companies purposely schedule workers to avoid paying overtime, but it doesn’t constitute an attack on worker’s rights. Workers have a right to overtime in non-exempt employment if they work more than 40 hours a week. But employers also have a right to schedule employee shifts in an attempt to avoid paying overtime.

Look, the biggest moves against unions have come at a state level, and most of the ones affected have been unions that are outside NLRB/Wagner Act jurisdiction (government unions, mostly). Private sector unions are going the way of the dodo because they’re an expensive intermediary between employees and employers that doesn’t really add much value.

“It’s great that you got to see the American Dream come true when you did — if you think upward mobility and our political and economic climates are the same as when you came up through them, regardless of whether that was 20 years ago or 60, they are not.”

I think it’s very telling that you think I’m much older than I am. I’m 28 years old. I earned my B.S in 2010, the second worst year for college graduates since the financial crisis. But I was still able to find a job quickly (before I left college, in fact) because I had a rare skill set that employers value highly.

My decisions in life have not been made lightly or unconsciously. I chose a high-demand field of study at a good public college that didn’t break the bank. I started investing in college with the money I made in summer jobs in-between semesters (because it’s much cheaper to make financial mistakes when you’re young than when you’re old) and learned a lot of lessons at a visceral level when 2008 rolled around.

I’m experiencing upward mobility right now. I have my parents to thank for that, because they raised me to be who I am today.