To fully understand my anger, read this article from Fortune.com, though I will be quoting the bit that really did it for me below.
Lets get one thing straight; Bernie Sanders is a Democratic Socialist - he is not Joseph Stalin and he is not forming the Soviet States of America. He is trying to fix a broken system. And furthermore, yes, the system is broken and it is reparable unless we continue down the same path we've been heading since we did away with the Gold Standard (but that's another post for another time.) His system works. It has been utilized in many other nations with unfathomably wonderful results. Denmark's educational system is untouchable, Germany's is pretty damned good itself, and even many northern U.S. citizens have to go to Canada to afford their prescribed medications. This isn't new, it's been ongoing for quite some time.
Mr. Rob May, CEO and co-founder of Talla, had this to say:
"...But when I hear Bernie speak, I feel like I’m the problem with America. I’m one of those millionaires he mentions who should pay more taxes. I’m the bad guy. I’m the white male who is only successful because everything was handed to me. I don’t deserve the money I made. All the things I sacrificed don’t matter. The additional stress I was under doesn’t matter. The risks I took don’t matter. According to Bernie, the world needs fewer people like me, and more people like the smart Yale student who majors in something useless, travels the world, and then graduates with $100,000 in debt that people like me should pay off via higher taxes..."
No, Mr. May, that is most certainly not what Mr. Sanders is saying. You are an intelligent man so it saddens me that you either haven't taken the time to actually listen to Bernie Sanders speak or for whatever reason, you just don't understand when he does. Either that, or more likely, you hear soundbites off other sources and take them out of context, never for a moment following his campaign and reading up on the actual policies he is suggesting. You are not the problem, specifically. The fact that your company may be in one of the niche tax brackets that abuse and butcher our economy on levels below you is a problem. You're not the bad guy. You're the misinformed guy. You deserve a significant portion of that money you've earned, yes, but you owe far more in taxes than I'm sure you're currently mandated to pay.
As for the bit about the Yale student who majors in something useless... first and foremost, there is nothing useless. All knowledge is valuable. Do I think that someone should get a free-ride through an Ivy League school? No, and I'm quite certain, neither does Bernie Sanders. The education state-paid will be the sensible education. State universities and community colleges will be utilized for these programs, not your hundred-thousand dollar schools.
The fact that you are willing to admit that the system is rigged but unwilling to yield that it needs repaired tells me more about your character than any other part of your poor grammar and woe-is-me cry for help through Fortune.com.
See, I don't want a Bachelor's in economics and a Fortune 500 company to lord over the populous. I want useful, hands-on learning in a field I know and can relate to that will land me a job making enough to comfortably live (a bedroom for each child, one for us parents, a kitchen, living room, dining room, and a couple of baths, I'm not greedy,) and not simply live to work. Minimum wage is ridiculous, the state of homelessness is disgusting, and both the worlds of education and commerce are broken. This is what the United States of America has become and it is only going to get worse as long as individuals like yourself, who managed to sacrifice all to climb the wall, sit up in your shiny condos not giving two fucks about the state of the rest of the same miserable group you made it out of.
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