I use my family as an example because I know the details
about us, but this isn’t all about us, it’s about anyone and everyone who is in
similar circumstances for whatever reasons.
Our specific situation is unusual, but there are other
people who are in bad shape financially because of disability as well. We’re a minority, there are millions of us,
but we’re a small percentage of the population.
So if anyone has a threshold of suffering that needs to be crossed
before they can’t sleep at night, rest easy.
Except the disabled aren’t the only ones who will need a
social safety net. My wife and I would
have been OK if we had been able to keep working. We can’t save for retirement now because of
health issues. But there are a lot of
people who don’t get sick, work their whole lives and still aren’t able to save
for retirement because they just don’t earn enough. It isn’t just when things go wrong that
people need help. This may be the
richest country in the world but that doesn’t make everyone rich. If you’re doing fine financially, good for
you, but there are people who need help.
They don’t need help because they did something wrong or
because they’re lazy, they need help because the poor and working class live
paycheck to paycheck and wages for the middle class have been stagnant. Sometimes there just isn’t enough left over
to save enough to retire, or save anything at all. Even with the programs we have now some
people will keep working until they die.
We should be talking about improving what we have, not
trying to cut it because it’s expensive.
What’s a human life worth, anyway?
What’s a little dignity worth? Why
is compassion not worth the expense?
I’d like to think we’re better than this. Maybe it’s time we showed it.
Of course I worry about my wife and myself, but we’re not
alone. We help others when we can. I don’t understand why we can’t do that as a
nation. We’re not just individuals, we’re
a community. When did we forget that?
Maybe Sandy
can remind everyone.
No comments:
Post a Comment