No Boots, No Bootstraps, No Christmas
I remember being told to cut out avocado toast, not to buy coffee, and to just pull myself up from the bootstraps. Yet, I don’t remember ever hearing those people saying anything when I pointed out that even with doing all that, I can still barely afford to live.
My family makes $100,000 annually, and we still can’t afford groceries without scraping by or getting ramen for every meal. Healthy food is focused on the kids, and we eat what we can if we can. Even with that, it’s still so stressful to grocery shop that sometimes all we can do is cry.
Christmas is nearly impossible to add on top of all this, let alone any wants or experiences to do with the kids. Then, to hear Biden sending billions more dollars to Israel and Ukraine is too much to stomach while our family can’t afford food, let alone Christmas. That money would benefit many people in the US, yet this country leaves us struggling.
The Bootstraps Never End
No amount of bootstrap-pulling will fix low wages and high costs of living. Christmas isn’t a necessity, but no parent wants to explain to a child, barely learning about Santa, that Santa’s not visiting and watch how hurt they look hearing that.
It’s all too much. Greedy corporations make it impossible to live without living paycheck to paycheck. If a major problem arises, we have no savings to help. I can’t save when every cent we earn needs to be used – kids cost money.
I’ve heard people say, “Don’t have kids if you can’t afford them.” But do those same people expect that making even $100,000 a year cannot even cover food anymore? Together, we make more money now than ever before. Yet groceries, utilities, and everything keep going up, so we’re also poorer than ever before.
How is that fair to any person, let alone any parent? Even when parents try to help their child move out, they realize it costs thousands just to start out. It’s why so many young adults are living at home. Hell, some parents have had to move in with their adult children because they can’t afford to live in retirement anymore.
Are we expected to keep living like this while companies make record profits? I hear companies like Walmart complaining that prices need to stay high because they’d make less money. But while they make those record profits, we can’t afford to eat!
The politicians sit pretty while we can’t afford to live. They’re guaranteed their pay even during a government shutdown, while a job loss could mean homelessness for my family. They have elaborate Christmas decorations and gifts while we struggle even to make sure Santa gifts make it. Where does this end?
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Not Making Ends Meet
I have a family of six living with my mother and little brother, seven counting me. Even just planning birthday parties has become nearly impossible. This isn’t fair to anyone. Working another job isn’t a solution, because then what time do our kids get with us? On top of that, that means we’d have to add the childcare expenses into the mix. Yet, it’s cheaper for me to stay home and watch my own kids. That means I literally can’t even afford to work.
Not eating out isn’t an option when I can spend $50 for my family at Jack in the Box but $100 if I buy ingredients for almost any recipe. Otherwise, we wouldn’t be eating out. But while fast food is cheaper, it’s definitely not healthier. So we then deal with the issue of eating unhealthy, processed food.
It is taking all our extra money just to afford groceries, let alone affording a $5-$10 coffee that would “save” so much by not ordering anyway. Budgeting nonexistent funds doesn’t help either; if it’s already unaffordable, even with the best budgeting, it wouldn’t be affordable. Prices keep going up, but wages don’t. Cutting things out of our list or budget doesn’t help when the cost of everything else just keeps rising. We can only reduce our expenses so much.
On top of all this, because more people are struggling and groceries are more costly, WIC is facing a $1 billion dollar shortfall for 202l, which means more families and children will go hungry next year as millions are expected to be denied coverage by next September. How is this country okay with letting children and families starve? How are we not rioting in the streets?
Systemic Change Over Rugged Individualism
There are solutions, but they need to be systematically applied by our local, state, and federal governments, not individually by families.
We need solutions like applying rent caps and housing selling caps, reducing the ratio of what CEOs get paid versus what they pay their workers, and managing the costs of food and medical expenses, which are needed by everyone.
Costs have increased with no wage changes or minimal wage increases, and families are suffering. The younger generations are quickly realizing there is no American Dream; this is more of a nightmare. And they’re ready to take it down and start over so that they have a chance to move out of their parent’s house. We can do better for our people and families.
This stress is unnecessary and heartbreaking for all families, including my own. All I want is food and happy, healthy kids. And, I want to be able to make Christmas magical for them. That is not asking for a lot. And I’m tired of people pretending it is. And, I’m tired of hearing people say “Pull yourself up by your bootstraps,” when I have no bootstraps to pull on.
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