We were all promised the same social contract.
Go to school. Earn good grades. If you can afford it, go to college. Take the unpaid internship. Obtain your degree. Accept the entry-level job. Work hard, embrace the grind and climb the ladder. And in return, the American Dream.
Economic stability and freedom. The opportunity to move out of your childhood home and into your first solo apartment. The ability to choose to settle down anywhere from Nashua to Portsmouth to north of the Notch. Work only one full-time job that provides you with strong benefits, a healthy work-life balance and a solid return on investment for your education. Afford a home like our parents could at our age. Pay off our student loans and save for retirement, at the same time. Start a family, should that be a lifestyle we desire.
Time to wake up. Reality is much scarier.
Young and working-class people face the grimmest job market, maybe ever. Once they’re lucky enough to find a job, most people I know have a second gig or side hustle to help them stay afloat.
After a while, maybe they have the opportunity to move out of their parents’ house, but having your own space? Don’t get ahead of yourself. Instead, get used to having roommates. The reality for most in my generation is that they no longer view owning a home as realistically attainable.
Finally, those considering having kids are discouraged by the skyrocketing costs of child care. In New Hampshire, families are already feeling the squeeze from rising rents, some of the highest property taxes in the country and child care costs that can exceed $20,000 a year, rivaling a second rent payment for most.
And this isn’t happening by accident. It’s the result of deliberate policy choices about who our economy is built to serve.
While this sacred contract is repeatedly broken on our young and working class, conservative politicians seek to sweeten the deal for New Hampshire’s largest and wealthiest corporations via House Bill 155. It would cut corporate taxes that have already been reduced 27% since 2015 and cost us $26 million a year, leaving even less funding for critical services that have already been gutted over the years.
And when the state collects less revenue, those costs don’t disappear. They are pushed down onto local communities, driving up all of our property taxes and increasing the cost of living for everyone else.
Anytime that a popular policy proposal comes forward that would drastically improve the quality of life for ordinary working people and their families, opponents of the idea will attempt to undercut it by asking in bad faith, “But how will we pay for it?” while never applying that same principle to massive transfers of wealth that benefit the 1%. There’s always money to be found for tax cuts for corporations and the rich and for war, but never enough for the rest of us. That’s the rigged economy in action.
The state senate should reject HB 155, swiftly and decisively. Otherwise, they send a loud and clear message to New Hampshire’s next generation about their economic future: keep dreaming.
Stephen Denis is an educator, organizer, and political commentator residing in Manchester. He has a growing independent media venture called “Out of Bounds” on Substack.