For the past three or four days, I’ve had a few posts come through my feed from people who are either quarantined because they were exposed or quarantined because their kids are. All of these posts have been from women who work, worried and seeking advice on how to find help financially because they don’t have paid leave.
These are not women working for minimum wage, and all of them work a job that requires some sort of certification (not that it should matter).
I’m organizing around the “Build Back Better” bill, which is highly centered around the permanent expansion of the Child Tax Credit/EITC, child care funding, paid leave, and immigration. It’s been a little easier to talk with folks about the Child Tax Credit than any other, and I’m not sure if part of that has to do with the immediate relief when that check hits the bank or what. The thing that really blows my mind, though, is that these programs greatly benefit the working class; these programs incentivize work.
It’s hard to convince proud working people these days to talk about how a government program can help them without being told that I’m only asking for handouts or that I want the government to control my entire life. Even when they’re freaking out because a pandemic has caused them to miss two or three weeks of work without pay. Even when their hardship is happening and it’s not their fault. Even when they’re scared and temporarily paralyzed by that fear.
A common pushback from the working class is that they don’t care if every assistance program is stopped because no one helps them. I have been told a bazillion times that no one helps them feed their families, or no one is standing there handing them a check every month, or people should be working as many jobs as it takes to support their family. Just the other day, I was told by a stranger that I needed to be a “grown ass adult” and “stand on my own two feet” when I mentioned paid leave on a “quarantined and freaking out” post.
There’s this prideful assumption that everyone who needs or receives help is lazy and unmotivated. The worst part about this pride is that the government would help them if they’d stop being so argumentative and start being more honest with themselves about how hard they work at getting by. And is it really “help” to ask your government to provide the basic supports so you can raise your family well? Is it wrong for someone to want paid leave while working so they don’t have to choose between a paycheck or taking care of a sick loved one? Come on now.
Paid leave requires a job in order to get it, first of all. It’s a benefit for only working folks. The bill wants the wealthiest to foot the bill. I know it’s hard for us to imagine that we don’t qualify in that “$400,000 a year” category, but I only have probably 3 or 4 people on my friend’s list who do, and only two of them live in West Virginia. It’s so easy for us to throw our hands up in the air and insist that anyone who wants to challenge the status quo and push for change is the ridiculous and/or lazy one.
It’s easier to stay comfortable and complain than it is to actually believe we shouldn’t have to work this hard to work this hard.
The same people who want to argue with me about paid leave are the ones who won’t admit that Social Security is an entitlement program. There’s no shame in receiving money when you retire, right? And you expect the government to have those checks ready for you. The government you want to support your retirement is the same one which should be supporting your build up to retirement. I know, we pay into Social Security, but imagine if we had paid leave in place to help us keep jobs longer because we wouldn’t have to choose between taking our mom to cancer treatment or our job.
Paid leave is a building block to a stronger future.
Working class folks are the ones out here moving our country along. We were the ones labeled “essential” when the COVID19 crisis started. “Essential” means necessary! The country wouldn’t have survived this pandemic at all without the working class!
So why not push the government to have your back rather than allowing it to continue to load the weight of the world on it? There is nothing wrong with making your life easier, y’all. Call your senators. Tell them you deserve paid leave for all. Let’s work smarter and not harder.
Onward,
Amy Jo
