Working hard shouldn't mean falling behind
I grew up on my family's farm, where the budget got worked out at the kitchen table, and one bad season meant tightening everything. When I finished college, Michigan was in the middle of its lost decade, and I watched classmate after classmate pack up for other states because they couldn't make a life work here. I stayed, but too many of my friends never came back.
I think about that a lot, because I'm hearing the same worry again. It's the young couple who can't afford a first home in the town they grew up in, the retiree watching groceries and utility bills eat up more of her check, and the parents running the numbers on whether a second paycheck even covers daycare. None of them are asking for a handout. They're asking why working hard and doing everything right still leaves them falling behind.