Not only are they losing, they realize, but their good sportsmanship is being exploited. People feel like chumps when they believe that they’ve played a game by the rules, only to discover that the game is rigged. Feeling like a chump doesn’t just mean being upset that your taxes are rising or annoyed that you’re missing out on some windfall. That father was expressing an emotion growing more common these days: he felt like a chump. We did the right thing and we get screwed.” “You’re laughing at me,” the man said, when Warren seemed to wave off his concerns. By subsidizing people who run up large debts, Warren’s policy would penalize those who took that responsibility seriously. Saving money to send your children to college used to be considered a hallmark of middle-class responsibility. It summed up the frustration many feel over the way progressive policies so often benefit select groups, while subtly undermining others. “So you’re going to pay for people who didn’t save any money, and those of us who did the right thing get screwed?”Ī video of the exchange went viral.
I’ve saved all my money she doesn’t have any student loans. The biggest buzz surrounded her $1.25 trillion plan to pay off student-loan debt for most Americans.Ī man approached Warren with a question. “ Warren Has a Plan for That” read her campaign T-shirts. At the time, Warren was attracting support from the Democratic Party’s left flank, with her bulging portfolio of progressive proposals. Last January, a small but telling exchange took place at an Elizabeth Warren campaign event in Grimes, Iowa.