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October 12, 2004
If I vote do I get to keep my wallet?
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Brian Dille
Instructor,
Political Science |
At the risk of turning away readers who don’t like math, let me share a few details about our country. We are $7.3 trillion dollars in debt.
When I was in college a decade ago, we were “only” $3 trillion in debt. These numbers are hard to get a handle on, because regular people think in thousands, not trillions. Let me put it this way. If I ran a business so lousy that I lost a million dollars a day, it would take me more than twenty thousand years to lose $7.3 trillion dollars. Even then I wouldn’t catch up, because we as a country go further into debt $1,630 million dollars a day, not $1 million.
Why should any of this concern you? Well, whether or not you agree with prescription drug benefits or the war in Iraq or tax cuts for the wealthy, the fact is that the generation in power (regardless of party) is paying for them with your future money. Ten or twenty years from now, when you are working at a job and raising a family, your tax money will not go towards paying for things that will be important for your generation, but paying off things that were important to this generation.
If that doesn’t sound fair, well, it’s not. So, why do they do it? Because the generation in power has no reason to care what you think. Your generation has no voice in the current debate because you don’t vote. If you don’t vote, you don’t matter much. Former New York mayor Mario Cuomo, truthfully said that in America, we have a political system that rewards participation and punishes nonparticipation.
This is true of local politics as well. Ever wonder why East Mesa has clean streets, adequate police protection, and tax incentives to entice cool, trendy businesses while the portion of Mesa around MCC continues its long, slow decline to Slumville? Or why there are no plans to link MCC to the valley light rail system or improve East-West bus service so you don't have to park in the football field to attend MCC?
Well, you don't get in power in Mesa or stay there by making MCC students or the surrounding neighborhood happy. You pay attention to and meet the needs of those who actually vote.
People between the ages of 18 and 25, of both genders, have always had the lowest participation rate of any group. There is some indication this may be changing. The Shorenstein Center at Harvard University tracks voter involvement, and they recently reported that involvement among young people in the current presidential debate is currently twice what it was in the 2000 race. This is a good sign. But this involvement must lead to actual votes if you expect your generation’s interests to be taken into account in today’s policy debates.
So you have a choice — vote, speak up, stand up for your generation, or remain silent and open those wallets 20 years from now.
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