Measure America on How We Treat the Most Vulnerable

and who we allow to suffer

Last night, my car decided not to start while I was half an hour away from home. An anxiety-ridden experience for me, as I had no idea how I’d make it home or to work the next day. However, I realized in that scary moment that I had support in my life. My friends and family were able to step in and get me to where I needed to be.

When it seems like your world is about to fall apart, you can reveal who has your back. While a car dying (with questionable fixability) is a somewhat mild example of this, it is what inspired me to think about this topic more. You know your true quality of life when it seems like everything is going against you, but you are still able to be resilient. However, for someone who does not have the support that I do in my life, that car battery dying could have resulted in a day of lost wages. Which in turn could mean a day without money for food and a deepening of the financial burden that eventually fixing the car will be.

In the same way that you can figure out who your true friends and allies are during personal emergencies, you can measure a nation’s priorities based on how it responds to its citizens’ crises.

Being unable to work due to health, transportation, or familial obligations has made living in the United States a nightmare for many. This country is a very nice place to live if you do not have anything complicating your life. It is an amazing place if you have wealth. However, for those who have one of those complicated circumstances, reality can be extremely difficult to juggle.

That’s why I ask for those who have influence in America to stop measuring our greatness and strength by our stock market growth or corporate profits. We place these statistics upon a pedestal; meanwhile, we allow mothers and children to suffer and turn a blind eye to such suffering while subsidizing the well-off. And in turn, the children raised in an inner city in America will likely face an underfunded public school district, further perpetuating a cycle of poverty that keeps generations behind.

Our economic growth and perceived prosperity mean nothing if we leave millions behind in the dirt while a select few live in absolute luxury. Our unemployment rate means nothing if the wages we pay those employed remain stagnant with the rising cost of living in the United States. We live in the wealthiest nation that has ever existed on this planet, yet we struggle to have that wealth impact so many corners of this country.

I am so grateful that I have the support I have when my life hits an unexpected roadblock. If I had someone in my life who neglected to support me, I would know where we truly stand in our relationship. So how is it that our country can get away with neglecting to support so many? When our government allows so many to be exploited by corporate interests, those who are vulnerable should understand where the ruling class’s loyalties truly lie.

I hope to live in a country where the bare minimum standard of living is to be housed, fed, clothed, and secured. That is a pipe dream at this point, but I believe it is something that can be done with the level of wealth we possess in the United States. I don’t know how to practically make that a more reasonable feature to have, but it must be possible.

It has been and always will be my belief that there are very few who are looking for a handout, rather than a hand-up. Not many want to be reliant on somebody else, or a government, for that matter. Maybe that is naive to say. However, I think that having the opposite point of view is something I’d rather not possess, simply because that view lacks faith in humanity. That more cynical view of the vulnerable in our society is a way to justify a less dignified existence for so many humans.

All this to say, I still don’t know the answers,

Seth