- The corporate media doesn't talk about it much, but the
United States is rapidly on its way to becoming three separate nations.
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- First, there are a small number of incredibly wealthy
people who own and control more and more of our country. Second, there
is a shrinking middle class in which ordinary people are, in most instances,
working longer hours for lower wages and benefits. Third, an increasing
number of Americans are living in abject poverty -- going hungry and sleeping
out on the streets.
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- There has always been a wealthy elite in this country,
and there has always been a gap between the rich and the poor. But the
disparities in wealth and income that currently exist in this country have
not been seen in over a hundred years. Today, the richest 1 percent own
more wealth than the bottom 95 percent, and the CEOs of large corporations
earn more than 500 times what their average employees make. The nation's
13,000 wealthiest families, 1/100th of one percent of the population, receive
almost as much income as the poorest 20 million families in America.
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- While the rich get richer and receive huge tax breaks
from the White House, the middle class is struggling to keep its head above
water. The unemployment rate rose to a nine-year high of 6.4 percent in
June, 2003. There are now 9.4 million unemployed, up more than 3 million
since just before Bush became President. Since March, 2001, we have lost
over 2.7 million jobs in the private sector, including two million decent-paying
manufacturing jobs -- ten percent of our manufacturing sector. Frighteningly,
the hemorrhaging of decent paying jobs is now moving into the white-collar
sector. Forrester Research Inc. predicts that at least 3.3 million information
technology jobs will be lost to low-wage countries by 2015 with the expansion
of digitization, the internet and high-speed data networks.
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- But understanding the pain and anxiety of the middle
class requires going beyond the unemployment numbers. There are tens of
millions of fully employed Americans who today earn, in inflation adjusted-dollars,
less money than they received 30 years ago. In 1973, private-sector workers
in the United States were paid on average $9.08 an hour. Today, in real
wages, they are paid $8.33 per hour -- more than 8 percent lower. Manufacturing
jobs that once paid a living wage are now being done in China, Mexico and
other low-wage countries as corporate America ships its plants abroad.
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- With Wal-Mart replacing General Motors as our largest
employer, many workers in the service economy not only earn low wages but
also receive minimal benefits. Further, as the cost of health insurance
and prescription drugs soar, more and more employers are forcing workers
to assume a greater percentage of their health care costs. It is not uncommon
now that increases in health care costs surpass the wage increases that
workers receive -- leaving them even further behind. With the support of
the Bush Administration many companies are also reducing the pensions they
promised to their older workers -- threatening the retirement security
of millions of Americans.
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- One of the manifestations of the collapse of the middle
class is the increased number of hours that Americans are now forced to
work in order to pay the bills. Today, the average American employee works,
by far, the longest hours of any worker in the industrialized world. And
the situation is getting worse. According to statistics from the International
Labor Organization the average American last year worked 1,978 hours, up
from 1,942 hours in 1990 -- an increase of almost a week of work. We are
now putting more hours into our work than at any time since the 1920s.
Sixty-five years after the formal establishment of the 40-hour work week
under the Fair Labor Standards Act, almost 40 percent of Americans now
work more than 50 hours a week.
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- And if the middle class is having it tough, what about
the 33 million people in our society who are living in poverty, up 1.3
million in the past two years? What about the 11 million trying to make
it on a pathetic minimum wage of $5.15 an hour? What about the 42 million
who lack any health insurance? What about the 3.5 million people who will
experience homelessness in this year, 1.3 million of them children? What
about the elderly who can't afford the outrageously high cost of the prescription
drugs they need? What about the veterans who are on VA waiting lists for
their health care?
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- This country needs to radically rethink our national
priorities. The middle class is the backbone of America and it cannot be
allowed to disintegrate. We need to revitalize American democracy, and
create a political climate where government makes decisions which reflect
the needs of all the people, and not just wealthy campaign contributors.
We need to see the middle class expand, not collapse.
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- - Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is the only Independent
in the U.S. House.
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are © BuzzFlash.
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- http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/09/04_sanders.html
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