Today’s post is a quickie because I really want you to click through and read this article: “I Don’t Know How To Explain To You That You Should Care About Other People.”
Kayla Chadwick wrote this for publication in late June and it’s driving force was the health care brouhaha we suffered through back then. However, the message ranges further than that and I find it resonates well with me.
In fact, I’m sharing it here as a primer for what I want to say, and I may refer to it on occasion. Like Ms. Chadwick, I do not mind sharing a bit more of my hard-earned riches to help others. If you simply do not care about other people, that may be the foundation of our difficulty in communicating.
Now, click through and read the article. And don’t worry, it’s short.
Steve Martaindale 
I read this three times trying to see the point. The author cites 3 areas, minimum wage increase, public education, and healthcare. As I read it, if I disagree with her it must be because I don’t care about other people. It can’t be because her argument in favor of a minimum wage increase is so simplistic a first semester economics student would see the fallacy in it.
Hint – it’s not a binary decision. The employer – assuming he/she still has free will would first try to offset the cost increase handed down by the benevolent government because to just pass it on would mean some loss of business. A study published in July, 2016 by the University of Washington since Seattle increased its minimum wage says “The minimum wage appears to have slightly reduced the employment rate of low-wage workers by about one percentage point.” And this occurred during a period of steady growth in a relatively affluent area.
I appreciate that you feel strongly about these things but you also need to bring some facts to the table before telling me I just don’t care.
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I can’t comprehend the callousness of people who call themselves Christians. I think on some level they aspire to, even believe they may one day be in the 1% who desperately need that tax break on inheritanc on their private jets. Or they are so ill-informed, they think inheriting a house on two acres will be taxed the same as $5.5 in cash, stocks & property.
Because so many of the middle class haven’t made the financial gains of the previous generation or two, they view themselves as living in circumstances very near the poverty level. They may live paycheck to paycheck, but it!s often due to outsize consumerism & expectations. That isn’t the same as choosing which utility will be turned off or sofa surfing with 2 or 3 kids until you can scrape up the deposit for a rathole to rent. “Love your neighbor as yourself” does NOT equate with, “Well, I manage, why can’t they?”
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Valid points all.
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She says what I try to point out to people and it is so sad to hear “I don’t want my money wasted on those people”.
If you have no empathy like a good portion of Republican voters, Trump voters then God love you we have no way to converse!
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Empathy is a bit short-handed these days.
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She says it well. Thinking about it too much puts one in a fury.
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Sometimes a little fury can go a long way.
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