Leo Dennis, contributor

Giving up all that you care about in order to work a job just for basic necessities should not be seen as normal. We as a society have been groomed to believe and expect that there is no other solution than to give in and encourage others to suffer the same fate. We act as cogs in a machine and reap no benefit for our dehumanization. 

An example of this: having a limited amount of money and resources forces people who wish to further their education into the workforce immediately after graduating high school. It also encourages people to join the military so they can pay for their education. As someone who was worried about paying for college, I considered going into the military just to afford tuition, which may come as a surprise to people who know me since I am intensely anti-government. Sadly, I know I’m not the only one in this situation. However, people experiencing no other source of income will resort to measures that go against their morals. 

One of my goals was to continue learning and earn at least a bachelor’s degree in order to obtain a stable job in the unstable job market. It would make sense for the military to pay for your college if you plan to go into something related to one of their fields. However, I’m majoring in Creative Writing and never plan to work for the United States military. In order to essentially buy a degree, one could potentially be trading their life for it. Luckily, I was able to apply and receive some scholarships so I can afford college now. 

One person’s income used to support an entire household. Now two people working over 40 hours a week can barely scrape by to support their household. Meanwhile, healthcare keeps getting cut, thanks to the Trump Administration, so people with health issues are left far worse off than at the beginning of the year, according to The United States Senate Committee on Finance. 

Everything is becoming more and more expensive while the people actually paying for everything are making nothing in return. According to ZipRecruiter, the average salary of an Amazon Warehouse Worker is $36,300 per year. In comparison, according to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, the cost of living for a lone adult in Minnesota is $50,893 before taxes. Where is that person getting that extra money from?

In short, they aren’t. That’s why there’s a housing shortage. Over 101,000 affordable places to rent are no longer available for extremely low-income families. This is forcing people who are trying so hard just to make ends meet give up their shelter. The next time someone tries to say the economy is thriving, remind them that a fascist with 34 felonies is not a valuable source of information.

Billionaires continue to spend egregious amounts of money on things that are unthinkable to the common worker. They have more money than one could ever conceive of while claiming that they need far more. Billionaires should not exist. Many people cannot afford a roof over their head and people look down on them for it. Meanwhile, they still praise those who have the resources to completely eradicate the housing issue. Why are people blaming those in hard times instead of the people benefiting from how poorly others are doing?