To contrast this… I worked with a guy from Cuba, he came over to Miami like 15 years ago, and then settled in my state and eventually we worked for the same company and met. He was a really cool dude, I liked him a lot. He was super smart, really nice and we became friends enough to hang out outside of work, but eventually we saw each other less and less after I left the company.

During Trump’s first run for office though… I could tell he was leaning more towards that direction because of the scare of “socialism” of the left, the right kept screaming about. He was terrified of it, if you even hinted that socialist ideas in a capitalistic society like the US was a good idea, he would launch into rants about Cuba and the history there.

I was trying to tell him, in my opinion you probably need a blend of socialism and capitalism to make a society work, and the US was probably too far in the capitalism camp at the moment, but he didn’t want to hear it. One time we hung out and he revealed he was in $35k of credit card debt, and again, I didn’t want to give financial advice, but was trying to point out the American Lifestyle is kind of a lie for a lot of people, when you see people driving around with expensive cars, cloths, etc. A lot of people can’t afford it and they’re in debt to be able to show off like that, and the smart thing to do is live simply, etc, and not be fooled by the US propaganda that you should be doing X, and spending Y to keep up with everyone else. But again he didn’t really wanna hear it.

I haven’t seen him in a few years at the point, but I’m always curious which way he voted during the last few elections and how he feels about stuff right now…