23 Comments

"But what if the trajectory of our lives didn’t hinge on health insurance?"

What if, indeed. Health care for everyone is such a no brainer I honestly cannot understand any argument against it.

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Nov 23, 2020Liked by Anne Helen Petersen

There are a lot of things I do not miss about the Evangelical faith I grew up with (the homophobia, the racism, the sexism, the Christian Nationalism just to name a few). But I do still consider myself a person of faith and the whole talk about it not being fair to forgive student debt when others had to pay theirs off really deeply reminds me of a parable in the Bible.

Jesus tells a story about a man who hires workers to tend to his fields. He hires a few in the morning, a few in the afternoon and a few a couple of hours before the end of the work day. At the end of the day he pays them all the same amount. It's also implied it's a nice amount of money. The workers who've been there all day complain that it isn't fair that those who worked just a couple of hours got paid the same as them. And the owner of the field says basically "Don't I have the right to do what I wish with my money? Or are you mad because I'm being generous?"

This story is where the concept of the last shall be first and the first shall be last comes from. Again not a perfect metaphor but I remember my mother referencing this story a lot when I was growing up. It was always in reference to fairness. That we should be generous in how we give to others and it doesn't matter if they "deserve" it or not. And I do feel that this concept still influences me today. I haven't paid off my school loans yet but even if I had I can't imagine not supporting forgiving everyone else's. And not just because of the all economic reasons it makes sense to. But because it's the right thing to do and it doesn't matter if I "miss" out on it. I want others to experience the freedom that comes from being out of debt just as much as I want it for me. Maybe that makes me a goody two shoes but oh well!

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Nov 23, 2020Liked by Anne Helen Petersen

Yes! I am pro-UBI because it would free us all to do meaningful work without being worried about a paycheck! I would love to make a small income and spend my days researching and writing about and advocating for the issues that are important to me, not what someone else thinks is important.

One of the most meaningful periods of my life was 2017 when I was unemployed and wrote my entire graduate thesis in 4 months. That January I had been let go by my employer while in the hospital for depression (fuck capitalism that cares more about the bottom line than people!) but when I was better I was able to live off of unemployment while finishing my degree. I ended up presenting that work 3 times and wrote a letter to the mayor of my city and she incorporated 2 of my ideas into a published report. (Unfortunately they were never implemented, and that mayor ended up resigning over corruption, but the fact that they were published at all was a good first step.) I got into local grassroots advocacy work.

I ended up starting a new job that April, and while I loved that job and my current position, there was nothing like the passion I had when I was free to research, write, advocate without fear of getting fired.

I worked really hard in that time because I knew it was temporary, but if I could have stayed on a basic income indefinitely, I could have worked less hard and had all of this extra time to spend with family and friends. My grandmother actually broke her pelvis that spring and was in the hospital and me being unemployed gave me the flexibility to be with her much more (every day) than I could have while employed (weekends). Where is my 15 hour work week that Keynes predicted 90 years ago back in 1930? My life would have been amazingly balanced if I only worked 3 hours a day on it, 5 days a week, and had all of this extra time to spend with family and friends, being domestic, and enjoying hobbies!

I just imagine how fulfilled everyone could be on a UBI when they had the freedom to truly pursue their dreams without money getting in the way! Suddenly those art degrees aren't seen as a waste because it's not about whether or not you can make money with it!

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Nov 23, 2020Liked by Anne Helen Petersen

I’m living the parental version of the job lock in which my kid’s rare disease orphan medication costs almost $500,000 without insurance. I’m staying in my boring government IT job until he turns 26.

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Many of us have been radicalized (in a liberatory way) by what you've so starkly and succinctly described here. Hope many more follow. Thank you for this.

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founding

My mother-in-law in England has been struggling with various health issues the past few months (she was born with a disability--rheumatoid arthritis) and is now in the hospital. It's frustrating not to be there (not that we could visit anyway due to Covid restrictions and the current lockdown) but I talk with her every day and every day I think how much worse it would all be if she or we had to think about how much this was all going to cost. She's never seen a medical bill despite major treatments for her disability all her life, and the difference that makes in a person's quality of life is indescribable. I'll never forget living in Austria and what it felt like the first time I needed to go to the doctor and didn't have to choose between that and groceries. Not that anyone needs more stories like this but what we find acceptable is just insane.

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I love the Kathi Weeks quote: I took the concept of “distance” quite literally and left the country as soon as I finished my M.A. In the years between (loan-funded) undergrad and (full scholarship!) grad school, I lived in NYC with no health insurance and could not afford food and necessary prescriptions at the same time. When a temp role at an area hospital turned into a job with benefits, I was able to get a thyroid tumor treated (among other things).

This was in the late 1980s, and it was horrific. So no, I’m not a millennial. But over the past 30 years, I’ve watched the numbers get bigger and the goal of stability and security get further away for younger members of my family and friends and acquaintances.

I left and rebuilt my life on another continent, in another language, and finally felt free. My cost of living in the 1990s was so low that I paid off my undergrad loans quickly. I have a safety net, funded by a social consensus that corporate and individual tax money is well-spent funding generous unemployment and retraining, and mandating as well as subsidizing health insurance for those who can’t pay the full premium. My chronic illnesses are treated and under control. I am free to change jobs, reduce the amount I work, opt for a freelance career, try something else on for size— without risking the roof over my head or my health. I live debt-free (except for my mortgage). With degrees in art history, and communication and journalism, my life would now look very different if I had stayed in the States.

The US needs to change. Drastically. Immediately.

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The long-tentacled capitalist system is not fair. Neither would be a one-off debt forgiveness. That doesn’t mean it isn’t a good and right thing to do. But it is unfair.

Most debating this issue are college educated - how does this proposal play out to those who are not? A huge handout to, statistically, the “smart” higher earners. You mention the agency involved here: just as people should be expected to factor the depreciation inherent to that $60k SUV purchase, so too should they be rational about the real, albeit capitalist-hindered and slow, incremental appreciation of that expensive credential.

I totally get the “job lock”. Hell, I’m living it. But where do we get off-really-expecting guaranteed stability, ultimate flexibility, low/no debt, and the social capital that comes with elite and/or advanced degrees?

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I really needed this post. Some new terms in here to help me better think about my own feelings on the subject. Thank you.

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My story is the marriage story—health insurance story combo. I was laid off in September, right after separating from my husband and buying a house of my own. Now, as I wait out the year before my state allows me to file for divorce, I am still eligible for my husband's employer sponsored plan, and thus not eligible for an ACA subsidy. Nor can I deduct my health insurance premiums as a business expense for my freelance work. My share (for adding a spouse) of his premiums will cost me $700 a month. It is batshit crazy that divorce is my best option for affordable healthcare--and there are millions of us impacted by this "family glitch" in the ACA.

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This resonates so hard. I was demoted to a part time hourly position when I got pregnant, but stayed and kept my mouth shut because I needed the health insurance that the wise and compassionate bookkeeper smuggled me onto. I never filed a complaint because I needed the job and the insurance during and after my complicated pregnancy. This was at a university while I was a student- I stayed on for years after just to keep my loans at bay and to have insurance while I dealt with mental health issues and a chronic disease that developed while I was pregnant- eventually leaving without my degree once my spouse found a job where we could afford the insurance for all of us.

How different our lives would be if I could have taken a break to heal and then come back to work when I was ready...

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I thought this was excellent. I hope it finds a wide audience.

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