by BERNIE SANDERS
Everyone wants to live a long, happy, and productive life. If you’re working class in America, that’s tough to do.
Last month, I asked Americans to share their stories about how financial stress is affecting their lives. The response was overwhelming, heartbreaking, and infuriating. Working people are dying years before they should. Stress kills.
Put simply: Being poor or working class in America is a death sentence.
Patrick from Missouri wrote: “Living paycheck to paycheck while supporting a family stresses me out. We are always just one financial emergency from being homeless.”
Taryn from Alabama shared that she pays $400 for her children’s asthma medication. On top of struggling to pay for groceries and basic utilities, she worries about astronomical medical bills every time her daughters go to the hospital.
I recently asked a crowd in rural Wisconsin: “What is it like living paycheck to paycheck?” Their responses? “You can’t keep the heat on.” “You have to figure out how to eat between paychecks.” “You have to choose between getting glasses for yourself or your kids.”
Sadly, these stories are not unique. This is what life looks like for millions of working-class Americans. They are struggling. They are exhausted. And they are dying far too young.
A recent report I released as ranking member of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee found that the bottom 50 percent of Americans can expect to live seven fewer years than those in the top 1 percent.
In some places, the gap is even wider. If you live in a rural, working-class county, you are likely to die 10 years earlier than someone in a wealthy suburb.
For example, if you live in McDowell County, West Virginia, where the median household income is just $27,682 a year, you can expect to live 69 years.
Meanwhile, just 350 miles away in Loudoun County, Virginia, where the median income is $142,299, life expectancy is 84 years—a 15-year gap.
Why? It’s simple. Day after day, the struggle just to survive takes a horrific toll on a person’s body and mind. Financial stress kills.
If your landlord raises your rent by 30 percent and you can’t afford it, what do you do? Where do you live? Will your kids be forced to sleep in a car?
If you get sick, and end up with a $20,000 hospital bill, will you go bankrupt? Or will bill collectors hound you every day?
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