Reply #56: I would say whom I support is not all that affected by my personal income [View All]

[Berry Cool]

because I do not look at candidates just in terms of "how would they benefit me" but in terms of "how would they benefit everyone in the country--including those who have it the hardest."

Unlike Republicans, I'm not "I-got-mine-and-screw-you" selfish. I am also all too aware that what I have could be yanked out from under me tomorrow. I am also aware that I only have what I do have largely thanks to a government that saw an investment in grants and student loans for the daughter of a TRULY "working poor" single mother as a good investment. (And it's something two of my siblings, who took a few courses but never finished college, do NOT have.)

Back in Jimmy Carter's America, imperfect as it was, a teenager like me was considered to be worth educating if for no other reason than that I could get a degree, get a job, and pay the investment in me back through taxes on the higher income I would have as a result of my education, not to mention becoming a decent citizen, which was also considered worth the investment. Imagine that.

I'm not so sure that if I were that teenager today, I'd be able to go to college. The attitude of my country would be "You want to go to college? Then why didn't your mother who makes poverty wages save the money for you to go? Why is your deadbeat father who didn't pay his child support half the time not paying for it? Oh well...guess you can't go...OK then, here are some loans, but remember, it's going to cost you at least $10,000 this year at a state school, probably $13,000 by the time you graduate. So you better get some scholarships, because otherwise you will be about $45K in hock when you graduate...plus interest...Sound scary? Oh well then, I guess you don't have many alternatives other than to get a minimum-wage job and try to live on it."

To make a long story short, I look for the tide who I hope will raise ALL the boats. Not just my own personal dinghy.