Ever since it was announced that Zohran Mandani, a self-proclaimed liberal socialist, won the primary for the New York City mayoral race, dozens upon dozens of hateful social media posts have crossed my feeds. At first, I chuckled at how mad conservative Republicans are about it, but the more I read, the less funny it became. I’m not sure why so many people, including non-New Yorkers, are so opposed to Mr. Mandani. But some of the hateful comments I read made me wonder if their ire was aimed at the fact that he’s a proud liberal, a socialist, a Muslim, brown-skinned, or all of the above. Is it really HIM that they’re opposed to, or the changes he’s vowed to make? Changes that will actually help the poorest of his constituents and possibly offer them the opportunity to get ahead. Things like free buses, baby baskets, and free childcare. Some of those opposed are acting and speaking as though they’ll personally be funding these benefits, when in fact, it won’t impact them at all (other than using their tax dollars, which by the way, already fund numerous federal programs). The rampant hatred towards a man they don’t even know because of his vision to better his city also made me think about several other things.

Mainly, why so many Americans are against federal agencies that were solely formed to help less fortunate individuals. These programs are NOT new. They’ve been in effect for decades. I thoroughly believe that it isn’t necessarily the agencies they’re against; it’s the people who rely on those agencies to help them get by in desperate times. Because of the misinformation about said programs that they continually ingest, they’ve convinced themselves that only “lazy lowlifes” receive these benefits. (For more in-depth information and charts pertaining to this very subject, read my blog entitled “Oh Snap, There Goes My Medicaid!”) With even more turmoil churning now with all the cuts set to be made to programs like SNAP and Medicaid, I have a simple question, especially for those of you who consistently post Bible scriptures on social media and tell everyone what a good Christian you are only to turn right around and post derogatory memes and/or statements about these programs and those who are in need of help. When did it become morally wrong, or sinful, to help the poor and deprived? Have you never been in need yourselves? Have you ever had to struggle to get by? Or does your hate, bigotry, and resentment guide you down a path that compels you to believe that everyone can make ends meet on their own without their government’s assistance? Or help from anyone else for that matter. I have to tell you, it must be miserable to have such a cold, hard heart. And it certainly isn’t Christlike! Just for the record, you don’t need or have to be a Christian to support assisting those in need. You just have to be a decent, caring, and kind-hearted human.

With that said, do you really believe that any and everyone should be able to make their way financially in today’s world without ever needing or asking for assistance along the way?

If so, then you have no idea just how wrong you are. I’ll break everything down to make it easy for everyone to understand.

Let’s first address the federal minimum wage. Currently, it’s $7.25 an hour. There have been multiple proposals to raise the minimum wage to $15.00 an hour, but even that was met with disgruntled disapproval. Why? Many think that’s too high of a salary and that most workers don’t deserve to make that kind of money. Yet these same people who complain about raising the minimum wage have no problem walking into Starbucks and paying $9.00 for a cup of coffee!

Granted, there are workers who do make more than the minimum wage; however, salary is set by the employer, not the federal government. Unless, of course, you work for the federal government. Like many other employers, the salaries are tiered. For example, starting pay is an X amount. After three to nine months, salary increases to X. And so on. For the sake of this presentation, I’m going to be generous and give my employee $15.00 hour. Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Trust me, it’s not! So, let’s get started.

$15.00 an hour X 40 hours = $600 a week X 4 weeks = $2400. Keep in mind that this is GROSS pay. After taxes and other deductions, the likely NET pay will be around $2000.

Not all employers pay by the week. Some pay bi-weekly, others twice a month. If you’re in the latter, you actually lose 2-3 paychecks a year. If you get paid every two weeks, 2-3 times a year, you’ll draw an extra paycheck. However, this does NOT altar gross annual salary. It stays the same.

More and more adult children still live at home. Not because they want to, but because they have no other choice. They simply cannot afford to live on their own. Parents should NOT feel bad for requesting that their adult children chip in a certain amount of money each month to help with expenses. Afterall, they will continue to use water, electricity, Internet, and eat. Some parents might be opposed to charging their children to live at home, but this is far from bad parenting. It teaches them responsibility and helps them to be appreciative. Besides, where else could they live for three hundred dollars or less a year?

Which brings me to the inflated cost of rent. It is ridiculously and ludicrously high. This doesn’t apply only to those who choose to leave the nest and branch out on their own. It applies to everyone, including married couples and live-ins.

According to an apartments.com report, the AVERAGE, nationwide monthly rent for a 2-BR apartment or 2-BR house is $1886. A 3-BR apartment or 3-BR house averages $2358 per month. Before you can take possession of that apartment, you must first fork over first month rent, last month rent, and a security deposit, which is generally equal to that of a month’s rent. But it doesn’t end there. There are connection charges for electricity, gas, water, cable TV, and Internet services. Charges vary from state to state/city to city, so it’s virtually impossible to tally up the additional expenses for these utilities.

If you’re lucky, you might find an apartment that includes free water. Actually, it isn’t really free. In this event, the apartment complex pro-rates the full cost of the charge for monthly water and distributes it evenly amongst all tenants. All this does is save you the connection cost you’d have to pay for an independent account.

Next come the groceries. Trust me when I tell you that the cost of food has skyrocketed. I just spent $324 on groceries just for me and my husband, and that amount was all spent on food related items. For someone just starting out, they’ll barely be able to buy Ramen noodles.

More and more employers have opted to hire staff on a part-time basis. There’s a reason for this. Employers are NOT obligated to offer or provide benefits, such as medical insurance, to part-time staff. Even if you work 39.45 (thirty nine hours and forty-five minutes) a week, you are NOT considered to be full-time. A full-time employee MUST work a minimum of 40 hours per week. No exceptions.

Not all employers offer insurance benefits, even to their full-time staff. Those who do generally only offer it to the employee, not their families. They can purchase a rider to cover family members, but the premiums are so high that it’s unaffordable. On the downside of that, sometimes even employers who do offer insurance to their personnel do so at a high premium cost, which again makes it unaffordable. This is why so many Americans are either on Medicaid or have insurance through the ACA. Alas, they’re about to lose that, which will leave them uncovered.

What about emergencies? A trip to the dentist? An unexpected illness that requires a doctor’s visit? What does one do in a situation like that with no extra money and no dental or medical insurance? Nowadays, dentists require payment up front before they even consider treating a patient’s dental problem. A non-profit hospital is required by law to treat everyone, but there are many rural areas, even bigger cities, who do not have a non-profit hospital in their vicinity. A for-profit hospital will only treat patients who can pay up front or who have insurance. No money? No insurance? No treatment. Goodbye! The loss of Medicaid will greatly affect many aspects of the medical field and will inevitably result in the closing of nursing homes and rural hospitals across the country. Make no mistake. People WILL die as a direct result of this.

Now we’re down to childcare. The cost of daycare these days is astronomically high. Per Bankrate, the average cost of childcare for ONE CHILD is $14,070 a year, or $1173 a month, or $300 a week. Infant care usually runs even higher. Remember, not everyone can afford the luxury of staying home for six months after the birth of a child!

There’s a whole lot I could say about this subject, but I’ll save it for another time.

I honestly don’t know how singles, or even married couples, are expected to live comfortably under these conditions. If they can barely pay rent for an apartment, do you honestly believe they can afford to buy a house? Appraisals, inspections, down-payments. None of these come cheap.

When all of this is taken into consideration, do you truly have to ask why people need help sometimes? It should be as plain as the nose on your face.

I have absolutely no problem with my tax dollars supporting programs that help those less fortunate than I am. At one time, I WAS one of the less fortunate. As a single mother of three young daughters, and although I worked a full-time job, I still struggled to make ends meet, cried out of fear that I couldn’t pay all of my bills and feed my children. I fretted and worried constantly. But you know what? I endured it all and I believe the experience shaped me into becoming a better person. I’ve always shown caring and compassion toward others, but experiencing the struggle personally made me care even more. Once you’ve been down that road, you NEVER forget the struggle, and the last thing you should want to see is someone else stumbling down that same road. We should ALL want to help them up, dust them off, and encourage them.

Wouldn’t it be a much nicer world if we ALL started displaying more empathy and kindness towards the unfortunate instead of tearing them down and ridiculing them when the only sin they’ve committed is being poor?

I think so.

Visual Presentation (with rough monthly estimates)

Monthly Salary                       $          +2000.00

Rent                                                     -1900.00

Electricity/Gas                                     -150.00

Water                                                   -100.00

Groceries                                             -300.00

Childcare                                             -1173.00

                                                            _______

                                                -(Negative) $1623.00

Any questions????

GNP