In hard times, we tell a common story. Pull yourself up by your bootstraps. Tighten your belt. Sacrifice for the greater good. We hear it again right now—as military conflict abroad, economic anxiety at home, and a federal government actively dismantling the safety nets millions of Americans depend on converge into something that feels, for many people, like a slow emergency with no clear end. Here is what that story always leaves out: we have never, in our entire history, actually done this