This post in the Free Press seems true in a way that’s undervalued, and will never be fully appreciated, by the politicians in Washington.
I think Wendell Berry and E.B. White would understand this man’s concerns. Berry from lived experience and White from a more theoretical standpoint.
Berry lives and farms in rural Kentucky, and has most of his life. He’s a progressive on social issues and very much a conservative on the way to construct a life and a community. He would be sad at the reality of being priced out of marriage because you can’t drop you Medicaid plan that your partner and kids are on.
In a small way, I relate to this shadow. We’ve been on Medicaid since Shepherd was born because after being told that his birth was in-network and would be covered by our insurance, we were told post-birth that actually, the OBGYN was in-network but the hospital was out of network. So, we owed something like $25k.
Medicaid stepped in and covered it, and us since. Thank God. An insurance plan from my current job for the whole family would be $1k/month.
So, this line of questioning makes sense to me as a critique on the system as-is:
I’m writing to ask one simple thing: Who is this country really for?
Because if it’s not for parents doing their best to raise good kids in a broken system; if it’s not for factory workers and farmers who show up every day, no matter how little is left in the tank; if it’s not for families trying to make a life from the land and a paycheck. . . then maybe the flag doesn’t wave for all of us after all.
This is all quite complicated of course. Our money doesn’t go as far, partly because groceries cost more and a starter house is quadruple (not precisely) what it was for our parents, but also because we consume more. Our consumption habits outpace our desire to be responsible and save. Many have decided to just vibe or gamble their way out of it (h/t all of Kyla Scanlon’s work): “I’ll never be able to afford a house anyways so why not just enjoy my life?” This is a very real sentiment.
My guess is some significant amount of these problems come back to the social changes we’ve initiated over the last several decades and that are now maturing: The Bowling Alone affect.