Reply #32: I never thought much about my own income [View All]

[varelse]

it's well under 50k a year and I can't afford things like my own home, or children, or even supporting my parents as they grow older... but maybe that is one reason I supported Kucinich (and damn near voted for him in the California Primary) and now support Edwards as my second choice.

Thing is, my own financial situation is fine, in spite of the fact that the area I've settled in ranks very high in the cost of living - I think it's in the top 10 cities. I'm saving money, even - most likely because of my upbringing, there's so many things other people feel they must buy, that I don't even think about any more (or never did). I buy furniture, dishes, clothing, and appliance at yard sales, flea markets, and in thrift stores and think nothing of it.

It's not my own income or my own situation that drives my (extremely limited) involvement in politics. It is the future that inspires me. The future of all humans, everywhere, and all life, everywhere.

*It's also the single mom working two fulltime jobs and living in a campground or a parking lot, or the one working graveyard while her kids sleep in the camper parked at the sweatshop. It's the genius IQ child struggling with emotional and behavioural problems who might not ever realize his full potential because the $$ aren't there to provide counseling, or to get him into a good college where his brilliant math and science potential would be realized - for the good of all of us.

It is all the lost and wasted human potential, from all the bright, compassionate, hard working, ambitious humans I have met in my life, who have simply been ploughed under. That, and not my own income level, is why I tend to vote for the guy who has experienced homelessness and poverty, or as an alternative the guy who is openly recognizing the same waste of potential that I see - and if he's faking that, he's doing a damned good job of it.

*these are people I have met, and known, and I could list more, but I'm not writing a novel here :P