







Image via Twitter @IamN0TaB0T





As a Yang Gang member, I sometimes get bombarded with various anti Freedom Dividend propaganda. One of the main arguments I see is:

$1000 isn't enough to help anyone and it destroys the safety net, leaving the poorest among us worse off than before.





This is a very long personal answer to that argument. I'd like to show just how beneficial $1000 a month can be for those living in poverty.





The last few years have been nuts. My husband had been having back problems off and on for a while. Last year it got so bad that he would be immobile for multiple days at a time. I was getting pretty worried. He was also missing work because of this. At the time, he was the only one with steady income. I was home pregnant with our three other daughters, working on writing and small business projects that led to no real consistency in income. I started looking for a job.





After urging him to see a doctor for months, I finally convinced him. The doctor ordered x-rays and concluded he had degenerative disc. We were told there was no cure and it would only continue to get worse over time. Seriously? My husband is only 33. He's in pretty good shape and we live a relatively healthy lifestyle. I couldn't even believe it. And I definitely wasn't prepared for it. I had applied at every job I could find within reasonable distance to no avail. The interviews I did go on were horrible, I was in my third trimester and gigantic. I'm sure you can imagine how they went.





My husband would work when he could but we had to start choosing which bills we paid and were alternating between them every month, paying late fees and barely missing shut off dead lines. My husband could not get approved for disability because he was still able to work and therefore considered "able bodied." We managed to fall behind on mortgage payments during this time. The mortgage company was, to my surprise, willing to work with us. They told us that if we resumed payments soon, they would allow us to pay off our past due balance with our tax refund. When our baby was four months old, we caught a break. Our local Fry's grocery store was doing a seasonal hiring event. I applied, interviewed and was hired on as a cake decorator. Fry's was ok with me pumping at work and my husband took care of our baby while I was away. I was averaging about $1000 per month at the grocery store, the amount of the Freedom Dividend. I was able to resume our "good faith" mortgage payments and was slowly climbing back up out of the hole we had found ourselves in. Things were working out.





After the winter holiday season, I noticed my hours being cut more and more. I inquired about this and was informed that our store was a seasonal snowbird store. This meant that we were very busy in the winter but as the weather warmed and people traveled back to their cooler climates, the store was left with little hours to go around. Eventually, it got to the point where I was only working 0-8 hours per month. We also started a custom cake business around this time. My obsession with decorating and my cake instagram were what got me the job at Fry's in the first place and I had been learning even more there.





We fell behind on mortgage payments again. The mortgage company was calling. I told myself we would be getting the tax refund soon and we would make it in time. The cake business was also picking up speed, we would be ok. A week later, I found out we would not be receiving our tax refund as expected. It was taken by the US Department of Education to pay down some of our student loans. I laughed hysterically when we found out. Neither one of us had even finished a degree. And how heartbreakingly hilarious that all of our finance juggling had led to absolutely nothing. We were still going to lose our house.





Our mortgage payment is under $1000 a month. The Freedom Dividend would have taken care of it completely, with enough left over to pay our phone bill as well. With our mortgage payment taken care of, we could have taken care of our other bills ourselves. We could have kept our house and not had to face being homeless.





Losing the house meant I also had to shut down the custom cake business we started. I was devastated by this. I was having so much fun designing and creating cakes with my husband. Even our daughters were doing decorating work. We were creating quite the portfolio. With the Freedom Dividend in place, we could have pushed this business even further since we would have been able to stay in our house.





When I realized we would for sure become homeless, I called every number I could find regarding emergency and transitional housing, section 8, HUD, family support centers, churches, even veteran's services since my husband is ex-military. Every number I called gave me the same answers.

We are out of funding, there is a 3 year wait list, the waiting list is 6 years, you have to be disabled, you have to be a battered woman, you have to be a single mother, you have to make some kind of steady income.





There is no waiting list for the Freedom Dividend. These means tested program requirements do not apply to the Freedom Dividend. There is no base income requirement to receive the Freedom Dividend. It does not falter and it does not discriminate. These programs are incapable of helping everyone and people fall through the cracks. The Freedom Dividend is a floor for all, it is there for you every month without fail.





We are conditioned to believe that we don't have enough food and homes for everyone. This is a scarcity mindset and scarcity is a lie. In the United states there are about 3 vacant houses per homeless individual. We produce enough food to feed everyone on the entire planet 2700 calories per day. These programs are inefficient and don't help everyone. The Freedom Dividend gives us the chance to help everyone, 100% of the time.





If you would like to learn more about the Freedom Dividend and the other 105 policies Andrew Yang has, please check them out here .



















