“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”— commonly attributed to Albert Einstein
When I look at what’s happening in our state, that’s exactly what it feels like. We keep making the same kinds of decisions and expecting things to get better, while more and more people feel the strain. The reality is, that people are hurting.
Not in a loud way. Not always in a way you can see. But in the quiet, everyday math of trying to make life work.
So let’s do that math for a second. Nothing complicated. Just real life.
Let’s say you’re filling up your tank once a week. Maybe more if you commute. Gas around here is sitting in the mid $3 range, so a 15 gallon tank is about $50 to $55 a fill up. That’s $200 to $220 a month just to get where you need to go.
Now groceries. You’re not splurging, you’re buying what you need. About $150 a week is pretty normal right now for a small household. That puts you around $600 a month. So now we’re at $800 or more, and we haven’t even touched rent, utilities, insurance, or a car payment.
There is often more month than money. Now let’s add in something real. A doctor’s visit you’ve been putting off. Maybe it’s $120. Maybe more. Maybe you don’t even know, and that’s part of the problem. So, you wait. Not because you don’t care, but because the math doesn’t work.
You can put things off for a while, and you might be fine. Or you might not. That’s the risk people are weighing every single day.
Across the country, people are putting off preventive care just to make sure there is food on the table and a roof overhead. This is where people get stuck. You might have been able to stay healthy if only you could have seen a doctor in time.
And it’s not one big expense. It’s everything adding up at the same time. Gas, groceries, bills, healthcare. Every month, people are shifting things around, pushing something off, and hoping nothing unexpected shows up. Because when it does, that’s when things break. That’s what people are feeling right now. That quiet pressure of trying to hold everything together.
And when we talk about policy, budgets, and big decisions, this is what it actually looks like at the kitchen table. So, when we say people are hurting, this is what we mean.
At some point, we have to decide what we are going to do about it. This does not fix itself. The people making decisions right now respond to what we accept.
If we keep accepting this, we will keep getting it. We vote with our ballots. We decide who represents us, what gets prioritized, and what gets pushed aside. So, if this is not working for you, do not ignore it. Do not explain it away.
Remember it.
And help me change it