Welcome to Trump’s America, The i Paper’s World Insight series presenting the sharpest, deepest thinking on an era-defining shift in history and politics, investigating how Donald Trump and his administration have changed the US and the world – and where we go from here.
• America can’t afford to retire• The US is becoming impossible to live in• The White House I worked for would have condemned this image. Trump refuses• Maga leaders want ‘traditional American families’ – but can’t stop having affairs• Sin City has lost its shine. It shows how far America has fallen• The Florida street that exposes America’s growing homophobia• Inside America’s most loyal Trump town – where people still think he’s ‘a good man’
Erick Paramo, a 34-year-old Chicago resident, works 65-70 hours a week. He has a full-time, 40-hour-a-week maintenance job and his own lawn-care business where he works after hours and on weekends. His wife works full-time too; his mother helps watch their two daughters. He has two weeks of holiday a year — though it can be difficult to get days approved, not least because his employer counts on him to provide Spanish translation for other employees.
Even when Paramo can take annual leave, he’s hesitant of doing so. He told The i Paper that he started his lawn business in part because he thought “the money would allow us to go on vacation, to go camping, to go to [visit family in] California. But now everything’s so expensive, it’s gotten to the point where that money that was extra is put into the bills — food, the light bill, the gas bill, the rent, the car. It’s difficult because the price of everything has gone up.”
