The Collapse of the Middle Class

[Q]

BuzzFlash Guest Commentary

September 4, 2003

The Collapse of the Middle Class

A BUZZFLASH GUEST COMMENTARY
by Rep. Bernie Sanders

The corporate media doesn't talk about it much, but the United States is rapidly on its way to becoming three separate nations.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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..."


Rep. Bernie Sanders of Vermont is the only Independent in the U.S. House.

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/09/04_sanders.html

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- Note to moderators: I used more than four 'fair use' paragraphs because this is considered 'public domain'. Thanks.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Rep. Sanders

is telling it like it is. As white collar workers get fired and can't find jobs they start wondering what has gone wrong with the American Dream. They don't have far to look to find out. And it is our job to let them know who to blame.

[Q]

2. The GOP penchant for slave wage workers...

...has also caused unfair resentment of Unions. RWingers have crippled collective bargaining in America..saying that giving workers a fair wage and safe working conditions is hurting business. The truth is that it cuts into the greedy profits of the CEOs and their lapdogs.

- This CEO government has given workers a 'choice': accept poor wages and longer hours with less benefits...or we'll send your job overseas.

[izzie]

3. What little money I have I always give to this man.

Years ago I knew if he was for something it was the besr deal for the ave working man. He has always said it as it is.

[izzie]

4. What little money I have I always give to this man.

Years ago I knew if he was for something it was the besr deal for the ave working man. He has always said it as it is.

[BiggJawn]

5. Used to consider myself "Middle Class"..

Now I see that I'm really "Upper-Lower Class" Working Poor.
I make about 1/2 what true Middle-Class people make, I own no property, and if my modest investments become any more "modest", they'll be wearing a Burkha...

Sucks.

When will the "Class War" truly become a war, with rich people afraid to leave their gated communities, lest people like me grab and barbeque them, instead of this phoney "War" the style columns keep blithering about?

[catmandu57]

6. Our middle class has been exported

along with the jobs that enabled a middle class to exist. The income gap just grows and grows, these people aren't very good students of history. The poor can be used and abused, but when the people who percieve themselves as middle class start getting squeezed, then true reform comes. I just don't know if we can reform this one.

[AP]

7. .This, not Iraq, should be the Dem's central focus...

and Iraq should be defined within this paradigm