I credit a lot of my worldview and politics to the fact that I have a lot of friends who are poor and/or have chronic health conditions, and that I have to cont

I credit a lot of my worldview and politics to the fact that I have a lot of friends who are poor and/or have chronic health conditions, and that I have to contrast that with my well-paying and secure tech job and other institutional advantages. I've been with them on the phone and in waiting rooms, seeing firsthand how they have to navigate systems (both public and private) that are set up to fail -- public benefits systems that randomly corrupt their information and require them to prove they aren't defrauding the government, mental health hospitalizations that leave them more traumatized than when they entered, abusive bosses who take advantage of their precarity, systems that would leave me as an able-bodied/able-minded person absolutely exhausted and demoralized. And most of the time, all I can do is hug them, and send them money when things break down worse than usual. It keeps me humble, and angry, and with a real sense of survivor's guilt.