Monday, February 8, 2016

Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address –

Barack Obama’s State of the Union Address – 
      In Barack Obama's State of the Union Address, he mentions that the Economy is stronger than ever
with 14 million Jobs being created. This is what I would ask him. How does the rate that these
employees are being paid compare with the standard of living? If I'm being paid $15 an hour, it may
sound great until you figure out that the average is rent for a studio apartment in this area is about
$1000 a month. So it takes about 60 hours just to pay the rent! I had to pretty much quit being an Uber
driver because I couldn't afford the bills. I was inspired to complete my schooling, which goes into what
he said about student loans. I love the idea of not having student loans, and school being free. I signed
up for school and wasn't able to get the Pell Grants because of withdrawing from classes 20 years ago.
    I think Barack Obama seems like a very nice guy, if not a little out of touch. To recommend free
college seems like a great idea, but is it something that can actually happen yet at the same time he says
that we need to pay teachers more. Where is all this money coming from? I would be all for taking
money out of our military budget and putting it towards education.  I believe for America to be great we
need to be less interested in expanding our powers and focus on problems we have at home.
     The fact that he says that people are full of hot air that say the economy is not in good shape
is hot air itself. I feel that he’s out of touch with the Blue Collared Americans who can barely pay bills.
     Some of the things Obama said I agreed with. When he said it’s easy to believe that politics don’t
matter, I feel a tinge of guilt for sometimes feeling in the past that it wouldn’t matter whom I voted for,
that my daily life would remain unaffected regardless who is elected. I also like the fact that he believes
everyone should learn coding. However, I also feel coding isn’t for everyone. Some people are drawn to
it more than others. But I do understand his sentiment that maybe a lot of people who don’t have
access to computer programming could benefit from it. On the other hand, with websites like Udemy
and Youtube, virtually all you need to teach yourself coding is online anyways.
   A lot of other stuff he said seemed like obvious issues- criminal justice reform, equal pay, minimum
wage, recruiting great teachers for our kids, etc. He  didn’t mention that overall crime is
 down, because it’s more socially acceptable to look at the negative aspects of Criminal Justice than to

admit there have actually been some improvements. 

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