AJ: I want people to be in a place where all their basic needs are being met on the daily without having to justify why they deserve to have basic needs. Like, if you're another human being, you deserve to have access to health care, to food, to shelter.

Facilitator: And this whole argument about work ethic, that doesn’t seem like a mistake?

AJ: You're a human being.

Narrator: Just by virtue of being a human being.

AJ: In my opinion, yeah.There are so many times that I've been working my ass off and got nowhere. Like, I just had a conversation with my mother who's been at her job for twenty years. And is making fifteen dollars an hour. And she's been there forever.

Ted: Look at our groups and what you said. I mean, here you have a master's degree. You're highly educated. Very intelligent. And you've got a huge student debt. I think it's like nineteen thousand dollars.

AJ: Oh, no. A hundred and thirty thousand.

Ted: A hundred and thirty thousand dollars. So could you vote for a Democrat candidate who says, “Okay, come on in. Free college!”

AJ: Sure. I want everyone to have access to education.

Ted: You're still willing to eat that hundred and thirty thousand dollars in debt? Whoa.

AJ: I know I'm radical. It's scary.

Ted: Doesn’t that put you at a disadvantage?

AJ: Yes.

Ted: Wow.

AJ: I don't want people to struggle as hard after me. I want people to find value in each other and to find value in community. And if that means me sitting here and being in debt the rest of my life, while someone else gets a free ride, like, cool. Like, I really hope that when you get that education, you see the value in yourself and what you can give the community. And then that will come back in return for me. I play the long game.

Ted: Let's talk about the long game for a second. What about the people that came before you?

AJ: What do you mean?

Ted: Well, I've been working for fifty five years. I still have to work till the day I drop because my pension is diminishing with each dollar.

Facilitator: Just so we're clear on what's being said here, you’re saying, “Well, I'm still here, actually. And the policies you're talking about are gonna harm me.”

AJ: Mhmm.

Ted: And the money at my earning capacity keeps going down the older I get. I'm wearing out.

AJ: I'm also willing to give you what you need.

Ted: I don't want you to give. I've earned it.

AJ: It's not about that.

Facilitator: There's, I think, an underlying difference here that's emerging. You're saying in terms of policy, the very problem he's naming …

AJ: Mhmm.

Facilitator: Well, that's something we can and should address.

AJ: Mhmm.

Facilitator: That's not right. And it sounded like what you're saying is I don't want that.

Ted: Throw the old dog a bone?

AJ: No.

Ted: I won't take it.

AJ: It's about community. Like, we all of our families used to take care of each other. We used to have grandparents that lived in our house, and our parents lived in our house, and we've moved away from that. And with that, we've moved away from valuing our folks who are older than us.

Like, it's not about a handout. I should be taking care of you because I value you as a person, and it's not about care because you would have taken care of me when I was younger. And you were doing that by contributing to society as a working person.