Politicians work for us. It’s time to remind them.

We’re in an economic crisis worse than the Great Depression. Nationally, 40% of all small businesses may close permanently, if they haven’t already. A total of 60 million people have filed for unemployment and 40 million people could be evicted when the temporary bans expire.

The Orlando/Kissimmee area is no stranger to poverty. During what were considered “normal” economic conditions we were plagued with the dynamic duo of low-wage jobs and unaffordable housing which was the root of the outof-control homelessness crisis.

Like many others, I’ve experienced this first-hand. I’m 23 years old. I’ve lived in Kissimmee most of my life often working jobs that rely on tourism in my city as well as Orlando. My family is currently staying in a hotel room mostly paid for by my mother who’s a hard working certified nursing assistant.

My story is unique, but similar stories have been told before. The issue of poverty, both nationally and locally is the result of economic policies from politicians that prioritize corporate profits above the well-being of their community. Poverty is a policy choice.

When politicians at every level are unresponsive to the people, it’s too easy to slip into the mindset that we can never get the policies we need.

Remember that government and all these politicians work for you. When you go to work and your boss gives you an order, it’s not a negotiation.

You do what you’re told or there are consequences. That same dynamic applies when you make a demand to politicians.

When the public demands housing for the homeless or affordable prices for renters and home buyers, it’s the job of your representatives in government to figure out how to make it happen, not to give you a list of excuses why they can’t.

Protests and worker strikes are as necessary part of democracy as voting.

If the politicians you voted for are ignoring your demands, you go to the streets and make it so they can’t ignore you anymore. If that doesn’t work, elect new politicians and keep up the pressure.

Journalists can also have a huge impact on policy. The role of journalists is to be an adversarial check on all politicians and a watchdog of powerful business interests. When we get the all-too-familiar news that tax dollars are going to pay business expenses for a multibillion dollar corporation while the devastation of the working class continues unabated, it should provoke a backlash from beat reporters to investigative journalists that leaves politicians reeling.

In July, Orange County commissioners voted to spend $5 million to help fund the latest Universal Studios expansion at the same time around 30% of small businesses in the county were under threat of closing permanently and thousands of low-wage workers living paycheck to paycheck were out of a job through no fault of their own. The county threw $125 million at that same project just last year, but Universal Studios has still furloughed 5,400 workers indefinitely even though they have more than enough money to pay them.

Stories like this are the embodiment of how corporate welfare comes at the expense of the community. These taxpayer-funded projects are just begging for journalists to hold politicians accountable for their policy decisions.

Is this the best use of tax dollars? If you want to provide economic opportunity for the community, why not fund entrepreneurs and small businesses with this money instead? Are the schools fully funded? These are some of the many questions politicians should be hounded with by the press in response to brazenly writing blank checks funded with tax money to some of the most profitable corporations in the world.

When local media holds politicians accountable for their decisions, at the very least it makes it clear to the public that the crippling economic conditions felt across the community aren’t an act of god or the result of personal failings.

This is the logical conclusion of politicians prioritizing corporate profits above their community.

The reality is, an unrelenting local press can fuel public pressure campaigns that shame politicians into actually doing their jobs or make way for a new generation of politicians who will.

Politicians are public servants. It’s the public’s job to dictate policy and its the politicians’ job to enact it. It’s time to remind them of this.