As crazy and frustrating as the day was, I found time for some interesting conversations. Our old director (who is now the executive chef as he was replaced by Mr. Cookie Cutter Creep) and I happened upon a clothing sale going on in the building. At first I thought it was a second time around type clothing deal and I was pumped--after seeing the price tags I realized that I was sadly mistaken. Very. Mistaken.
The executive chef and I talked about how sad it was--most of our residents can't really "get out" to go clothes shopping any more, so companies like the one we bore witness to will sell somewhat nice clothes at unnecessarily high prices. They can line their pockets because of an unfortunate situation that many of the residents find themselves in...corporate greed at its finest.
Around that same time, I found myself in a debate on Facebook. I had posted a Bernie Sanders meme, and a friend of mine had felt compelled to comment on it. She is a staunch opponent of Bernie, and she made that quite clear.
The gist of the conversation was as follows: she did not want her financial freedoms taken away (to which I responded something to the effect of "we already pay taxes, and Bernie wants to focus moreso on the 1%") and she seemed to be of the opinion that she had a better grasp on the situation (rightfully so to a certain extent) because she had taken macro and micro-economics courses. And then she said something interesting--she told me that she hoped I would be able to get rich someday.
Let me backtrack a little. One of my biggest reasons for supporting Bernie is that fact that he is not funded by super PACs. He does not seem to have a vested interest (as far as I can see) in keeping the rich people rich and continuing to give them breaks, and his trust-buster attitude is reminiscent of Teddy Roosevelt. He does not favor the rich or those in power.
This person whom I was debating with is a Christian. I would argue that Jesus was probably more of a socialist than Bernie with the "...give all of your possessions to the poor and follow me" way of thinking. Now I want to point this out--I am not using this example to try to portray all Christians as hypocrites, because many of them are not. I am pointing this out to show that what Bernie wants to do economically is probably more in line with Christ's teachings than any other candidate. I am also pointing this out to show that for some people of faith, there can be a disconnect between faith and their true morality. (Which is why I personally feel that people should think through their own moral code rather than have someone else make it for them).
I told her that I did not want to be rich, because I wanted to be Christlike in the sense that I like some of Christ's teachings (like the one cited in the previous paragraph). I then cited a couple articles comparing the Canadian versus the U.S. economic system, and wrote a bit about how I appreciated Bernie's integrity and sincerity, adding a little picture of Bernie and a quote. That's when things got a bit ugly--she criticized me for posting the picture and then began to say she did not respect my opinion and that she would love to listen to it when I suffered, worked, lived, and succeeded in life. This willingness to attack without truly knowing me (if you've been keeping up with this you know that I work two jobs) and the support of the "rich lifestyle" reminded me of the clothing sale. If someone is going to knowingly manipulate and take away from someone who is less fortunate than they are, they need to give back.
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