“Nobody who works 40 hours a week should live in poverty.” – Bernie Sanders

The current American Presidential Debate is not just about choosing another president. It comes amidst one of the most challenging times of the US history. America has rarely been so ideologically divided, from the Supreme Court to the common people. Recent death of Justice Scalia showed just how deep the division is.

Second, America currently has one of the highest income inequalities in its history. 1% of the richest control around 40% of America’s wealth. It’s been rarely so in US history. Third, student debt in trillions of dollars is a ticking time bomb. Fourth, healthcare industry in the hands of private health insurance companies, who are making hundreds of billions of dollars, needs a serious fix. Fifth, federal minimum wage needs to be increased from current level of $7.25. Sixth, since 2008, minorities (non-whites) are ever-increasingly becoming decisive voters in presidential elections. That’s one of the key reasons why Barack Obama became president despite bitter opposition of most conservative whites.

Seventh, America is slowly waking up to the fact that the world is turning into a multi-polar world with the rise of China as superpower. It won’t take long for India to follow China’s footsteps since military power follows economic power. The world is already getting too big for one superpower to take care of. Finally, America has been lagging far behind Europe in matters of Climate Change. Perhaps America may be the only developed nation in the world with climate change deniers in Senate and House of Representatives. Obama has painstakingly tried to change that but as his term nears end, America’s role hangs in the balance. Let’s analyze major cases.

1. Peaking Income Inequality

In 2014, America had Gini coefficient close to 0.45 comparable to Mexico while most of developed nations of Europe had less than 0.40. FYI, Nepal had a Gini Coefficient of 0.35. 0 is ‘perfect equality’ while 1 is ‘perfect inequality’. I believe it’s due to blind faith in ‘Capitalism’ on the foundation of which modern America is built. Many Americans want market unregulated naively assuming the invisible hands of demand and supply will correct the market itself. They forget market is as good as the players are. If there is no referee in the game, who will ensure the rules are followed? People forget that during Republican president Eisenhower’s term, the tax rate for top rich earning $1.7 million a year (in today’s $ value) was over 90% compared to today’s 39% while average real wage has been stagnant or declined since 1970s. No wonder, income inequality has peaked today! Someone needs to fix it before it explodes. Bernie has a plan to fix this TAX issue and regulate Wall Street more to address income inequality.

2. Federal Minimum Wage of $15

Why should minorities – Hispanics, African-Americans, recent immigrants (including Nepalese) – vote for Bernie? Because, as a % of their population, they have the most minimum wage workers who are currently working for less than $10/hr. Students who come to study here will directly benefit from $15 minimum wage. By the way, Bernie was the first to raise this issue and Hillary had no choice but to raise her bar to $12/hr. Clearly Bernie is much more genuinely committed to this issue.

3. Health Care Overhaul

Anyone coming from India and Nepal to Europe are shocked to see the super expensive health service in the US. There is no public health service here. This is another extreme of blind faith in capitalism, in private companies. Even in UK, government provides health service under NHS (National Health System). Among the developed nations, US is the country with highest per capita expenditure on health. Americans pay three times as much as the British for same or less health service. Do you know where does the American health premium dollars go to? Into the private pockets as multi-hundred billions of dollars of profits for private companies like UHG, Aetna, Cigna, etc. Bernie Sanders has a plan to fix it. He wants to overhaul the whole system. Instead of paying $6000 a year to private health insurers, you pay $600 a year health tax to the government and the government will provide free health service. Of course, the government is not there to make profits! Many immigrant families, including Nepalese, still are without health care plan because the health premiums are still expensive for them despite Obamacare reforms.

4. Ballooning Student Debt

Bernie Sanders rightly said, “Undergraduate degree is the new high school diploma.” America spends half a trillion dollars on military budget a year, more than all the other major powers’ budgets combined but just a fraction of that in public education. Instead the government provides the federal debt. Like Germany, it could make education up to undergraduate free but encourage students to take up courses that give them practical (more than theoretical) skills demanded by the changing job market. Later, the more students get better paying job, the more taxes the government earns as income taxes which can support the free education. Did you see the “virtuous cycle”? Bernie is exactly talking about this. Now, immigrant students including Nepalese students, who do you want to vote for other than the person who has got plans that makes American education affordable to you? But, you got to pay back in taxes in the future! Never mind, if you don’t get job, you don’t need to worry.

Finally, I want to make a general note on the current ongoing debates. From my observation so far, no Republican candidate really deserves to be the next American president. Their debates are more about personal attacks than real issues facing the country, more about noises than substances. Their debates look more like a reality show than a serious presidential debate. The democratic debate is far better. Bernie and Hillary debate on the real issues that Americans are facing today. Their debates are devoid of personal attacks and appeal to an educated mind. But between Bernie and Hillary, I definitely pick Bernie due to personality reasons on top of the above agenda raised by him. Hillary is clearly more a bureaucratic leader than a ‘decisive’ leader. And, in terms of personal integrity, I trust Bernie, but not Hillary. I have seen Hillary switch sides, one time supporting Iraq War with the Republicans and at another time criticizing Obama’s Iran reconciliation. She is often driven more by what the mass thinks (not necessarily what she thinks) than what is right. And, most of all, she is not genuinely committed to above issues as Bernie is, who has been raising those issues for long. Win or defeat, I would go for a candidate who is genuinely committed to what he’s talking about. How about you?

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