My final day of summer classes I was leading a discussion with my students--mostly high school juniors and seniors--regarding the need for social change in America. One girl commented that it was no good just "giving people stuff" (like health care!!!) because then they wouldn't be motivated to work.
I have heard this argument before. I'm sure greater minds than mine have found a suitable response. (At some point I am going to have to find out).
This argument bothers me, especially coming from kids from prosperous families wearing designer clothes and who only bother to get jobs in order to buy more stuff.
I think my response at the time was, "Really?" Nicely vague and open-ended, hoping to encourage a dissenting voice. But no. They were all in agreement. Social programs (somehow we had slipped from a discussion of health care to welfare) were a slippery slope and once people were given help, they'd never be motivated to work again.
So I asked them if they knew what it took to earn a living in this area. Did they even know how much it cost to rent a place of their own?
Blank stares all around.
Imagine this, I told them. In a few years, you will be in college or graduating college and getting your first job. What happens when your job doesn't pay for the basic necessities of life? Then what?
I gave them the example of a friend of mine. At 25 years old, her job at the bookstore didn't even cover the cost of renting a room. Just a room. Not an apartment. And that doesn't include the cost of food and transportation and clothes and... oh, yeah... fun stuff.
What did she do? they asked.
She moved back home with her mom, I replied.
What happens, I asked them, when that is no longer an option, for whatever reason? What happens when you can't meet the cost of living, but don't have a place to go?
I could see comprehension slowly dawning on some of them. But only some.
Class was over so the discussion ended there. But I got to thinking how 20 years ago, my sister was able to move out of the house at 19 years old and rent a 2-bedroom condo with her girlfriends. It was cramped: they had to double up, two girls to a room. But they could afford to share the rent at $200 each, plus additional expenses. These girls were not college graduates; they were working various jobs in business and retail. But they made it.
I don't think young people today have the same options. And sadly, I don't think they truly realize how very limited their options are.
15 Days til the Burn!
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Interesting discussion and it's good you had the chance to at least bring this subject up with them. Hopefully, it will make them think. Mostly they are just parroting the ideas of their parents. And on the subject of "motivation to work," I'm sure most of them have never had such motivation or need; everything they want has been given to them.
Regarding health care, that the student mentioned. I'm sure that the ripe old age of 25 seems like a long way off to them, but that is the age that they will have to get their own medical insurance; they can't be on their parents' any more. I think most of them would be surprised to learn how much just basic ins costs if bought individually.
Post a Comment