With one Twitter thread, Ocasio-Cortez destroys the myth that poor people are poor because they’re ‘irresponsible’

US congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has destroyed the myth that people with less money and who struggle to pay their bills have a “poor character”. Writing on Twitter, she used herself as an example. Previously a waitress, she argued that the main difference today is that she is more financially secure – not that her character has changed at all. Yet she insisted that banks would now consider her more “responsible” as a result of her increased income.

Ocasio-Cortez won the New York 14th district midterm elections in November 2018. This made her the youngest woman ever elected to congress.

Struggling to pay the bills

She began by saying she has had a lot of “life-adjustments” since winning the election. Specifically, her new income has helped her to realise the false idea that people struggle financially because of “poor character”:

Going from waitressing a year ago to now carries a LOT of life-adjustments.

But 3 paychecks in has shown me how 1 of the greatest scams in US is the idea that financial struggle is due to “poor character.”

It’s a huge myth designed to keep people from empowering themselves. /1

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2019

She went over her own history of having a regular job and struggling to pay her bills:

When I was waitressing, I used to jerk awake in the middle of sleep worried that I may have forgotten if a bill cleared, or if I had enough 💰 to pay a Dr in cash.

Was that bc I was “irresponsible?” No. It’s bc I wasn’t being paid a living wage as cost of living skyrocketed. /2

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2019

But now, because she’s going through a “huge income transition”, banks will think she’s more “responsible”. They believe this, she argued, even though nothing about her personality has changed. In fact, the only thing that has changed is her income:

Now I’m going through a huge income transition compared to living off tips (which diff pay every week, very hard).

& I have HEALTH INSURANCE, which now means I have fewer expenses.

According to banks, I’d be more “responsible,” but my character hasn’t changed. Just my math. /3

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2019

The myth

Ocasio-Cortez insisted that it’s a “heinous myth” that people who have trouble paying their bills are somehow ‘irresponsible’. Instead, she argued, the real irresponsibility is employers not paying people a living wage. She maintains that “working people are set up to fail”:

The myth that bad credit or struggling w bills = irresponsibility is a heinous myth.

Paying people less than what’s needed to live is what’s actually irresponsible.

GDP + costs are rising, wages are not. That doesn’t mean YOU’RE bad. It means working people are set up to fail.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2019

She took particular aim at Chase bank. Chase had written a tweet suggesting that people shouldn’t spend additional money on lunch, coffee, or taxis. Ocasio-Cortez retorted that the bank seems to think anything more than “animalistic survival” is too much:

It’s a big part of what makes this Chase tweet so bad.

It’s the idea that if you choose to have any expense beyond mere animalistic survival – an iced coffee, a cab after a 18hr shift on your feet – you deserve suffering, eviction, or skipped medicine.

You don’t. Nobody does. pic.twitter.com/XKo6ayPfRJ

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2019

And she asserted that, even though the US is technically wealthy, it’s “simply not the lived truth”:

US GDP is at an all-time high. As a nation, we are more prosperous than we ever have been.

But that’s simply not the lived truth. Even now, I’m paid similar to a doctor or corporate lawyer – many who‘d think they are “rich,” but it’s nowhere near what we actually mean in policy.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2019

Taxing the rich

Ocasio-Cortez also claimed that when she says the rich should be taxed, she is referring to the super-rich. Specifically, she means taxing the kind of people who own multiple yachts, who profit from wars, and who pay their workers so little that they have to rely on food stamps:

When we say “tax the rich,” we mean nesting-doll yacht rich. For-profit prison rich. Betsy DeVos, student-loan-shark rich.

Trick-the-country-into-war rich. Subsidizing-workforce-w-food-stamps rich.

Because THAT kind of rich is simply not good for society, & it’s like 10 people.

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2019

And she declared that “living in a moral society, a good nation, means establishing some basic standards of dignity”:

Ultimately, living in a moral society, a good nation, means establishing some basic standards of dignity:
– healthcare as a right
– a living wage
– public education that prepares for civil society + economy (which now shld incl college)
– all people having power in the economy

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2019

And she ended by encouraging people to join a union and fight until they get better pay:

And in the meantime, as we continue fighting for Medicare for All, a living wage, & more:

Unionize your workplace.
Demand a raise.
And don’t stop until you get one. 💪🏽

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) May 11, 2019

Making them pay

With inequality in the US at levels not seen since the Great Depression, something has to be done. But Ocasio-Cortez’s suggestion of raising taxes on the super-wealthy has (predictably) met with resistance from the people this would affect. For example, Microsoft founder Bill Gates apparently described Ocasio-Cortez as “extreme”. Yet all she is suggesting is that the richest people in society should pay their fair share. At the very least, it might make the US a slightly more equal society. The reality, though, is that the richest in society will do everything they can to avoid paying more. And given this, it’s perhaps not that Ocasio-Cortez is too extreme, but that she isn’t extreme enough.

Featured image via Flickr – nrkbeta