Mark LaRouche is the director of shelters and facilities at Good Samaritan Haven in Barre, which serves the unhoused population in central Vermont. Mark has also had a lot of experience working with people with addiction issues — and he’s good at it. He understands it.
Mark lived with severe addiction from his early teens through his late 30s. He was in and out of jail in those years, and we talked about how addiction is its own sort of class. First, here’s Mark talking about his childhood in Rutland.
Explore the series: What class are you?
This interview was produced for the ear. We highly recommend listening to the audio. We’ve also provided a transcript, which has been edited for length and clarity.
Mark LaRouche: We're a big church family, so everything was related around middle or upper class. I mean, you're strictly Catholic, strictly Catholic. All the friends that came over, all of them, they would all fit into one bracket. There wasn't much diversity there. And that's not just a color thing. That's in general. A very specific type of people, thoughts.
Erica Heilman: Where did you find comfort?
Mark LaRouche: Reality for me? I thrive in the lower class. I like the lower class. Things are just a bit more genuine. Middle class is competition. That's all that's about. Just [keeping up with] the Joneses and who has a bigger goddamn boat. Rich people are just, they're living a whole different reality. Here I am struggling to [make] a down payment on a goddamn RV, but my mom can drop twenty grand on a three-year lease on a car V like it's nothing.
Erica Heilman: How old were you when you started to see class distinctions in your school, or in your—?
Mark LaRouche: What was that, sixth grade? Depending upon where the parents are at, that tends to start way before that, where you don't want people hanging out with this one, that one and the other one. Parents don't want their kids hanging out with certain people, certain demographics.
Rutland was as divided by where you lived, what side of Killington Ave. or Route 4 you’re on. And yeah, parents try to direct you in a certain way, force you to be friends with this family or that one, because you went to church with these ones. But, you can always step backwards and go into the lower class and always be accepted. The lower class is much tighter because they don't give a s—-, they're not going to bicker over things. They don't even compare things. They don't have much to compare.
I noticed it when I was in Danby for years. They all lived in single wide trailers that, given what I grew up in, I mean it's just, they're dumps. But they had brand new RVs, brand new boats, brand new snowmobiles. They’re genuinely happy. They take vacation like every month, they all go hang out. Yeah, they drink their beer and watch NASCAR. But they are genuinely happy, and not many people are. I see a lot of miserable people in office buildings.
Erica Heilman: So you're in the middle class living in a house or whatever, on the right side of Killington Avenue, whichever side that is. Do you have a story about a friend or an experience where you suddenly had an insight into, "Oh, I like that. Not this."
Mark LaRouche: There wasn't a point that I ever once said "I prefer this class over the other." I had a friend who lived down the street. There were eight kids in that house. The neighborhood hated them, and then a single mom with a junkie husband who was explosively violent. But, he was my closest friend growing up, and they didn't have a pot to piss in. He thought I lived in a mansion. I lived in a three-bedroom raised ranch. (Laughter) You know, $140,000 house at the time, not a million-dollar mansion. But it was easier. It was more comfortable. There's no judging, either.
Erica Heilman: At his house?
Mark LaRouche: Yeah, you'll find a truer person the lower you go.
Erica Heilman: You're talking about your friend and the family, that you felt more comfortable there. What's the flip side of that? Because you're talking about people who don't have enough. So what's the dark part of that?
Mark LaRouche: They'll never get anything. College wasn't something that's going to happen for any one of those eight kids, not without some kind of crazy scholarship, because right now they're just eight white kids from the lower class. They’re just, they're not gonna get far. Lower class just means less access. Less resources. What's the point?
Erica Heilman: Is addiction a class of its own?
Mark LaRouche: Addiction is likely the worst class of all of them, yes. It always has been, and that's not going to change without proper representation of that world. How many addicts you see in the Statehouse? None. Honestly, I would like to see four or five representatives in that Statehouse with needles popping out of their arm, because then at least you know there’s a proper voice for the addict world.
I think it's half the backbone of America, addiction. We’re the working class. We're the ones cleaning up your messes, the person that is coming to your house to trim your trees, people mowing all your lawns, doing all the work. I'd say at least half of the service industry is supported on the backs of addicts, half your restaurants, half your waitstaff. Everywhere. It is so much bigger than people think it is.
Erica Heilman: You're saying that a huge percentage of people who are working jobs have addiction issues. Is that what you mean?
Mark LaRouche: Mhm.
Erica Heilman: You know, people say addiction is not class conscious, that people from all levels of the socioeconomic strata struggle with addiction. So how, how is addiction and class related?
Mark LaRouche: If you're wealthy, you can go to rehab. You can go to a good rehab, that isn't two weeks in Vermont. Anybody living in poverty, they have no means of getting out of it. Everywhere I send people, they send them to rehab knowing they are going to come back to the same thing. They are going to fail, again. The guilt, shame that comes with that. It's horrible to do to somebody.
But what is there in Vermont to get clean for? Why? Look at the housing. I went looking for a place up around here, what, two years ago? I couldn't find anything. And I have a decent, well not at the time, but credit score is good now. I still wouldn't find anything. There's just not a lot in Vermont worth giving a f—- about. Rent is what, $2,000? Utilities, car, sure, even I can pay that, but I won't be able to live though. You're not going anywhere, not doing anything. What kind of life is that? It isn’t. So people don't bother. And I don’t blame them. Vermont sucks. I love Vermont. Absolutely f——— love it. I hate living here.
This audio story was produced by Peter Engisch.
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