Bernie Sanders: The Middle Class Today Is In Desperate Shape (VIDEO)

Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-Vermont) was on fire in his weekly YouTube video, "Senator Sanders Unfiltered."

"The reality is that the middle class today in this country is in desperate shape and the gap between the very very wealthy and everyone else is going to grow wider," he begins. Sanders goes on to detail why he gets so very tired of hearing that this recession is over:

While markets surged past 10,000, the official unemployment rate stood near 10 percent. The United States is in a unique historical position. People on top are doing extraordinarily well, but in the real world the middle class is collapsing. The top 1 percent owns more wealth then the bottom 90 percent. CEOs of large corporations earn 400 times what their workers make. That is not what America is supposed to be about. With all the issues we are dealing with - from health care to global warming to wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - please do not forgot what is happening to tens of millions of our brothers and our sisters out there who are struggling hard to keep their heads above water.

Watch the video below:

Comments

[PandJonB]

I beilieve that the political system, incorporate with lobbyists, are killing the middle class. Unfortunately too much money is to be had from the corporations. Middle class America gets wrongfully directed by corporate lobbying and corporate political policies working against the American individual. It is time to kill corporate lobbyists.

[Flavor]

Mr. Sanders once again, thank you for this timely article. There are so many hurting people in america and the middleclass has been hit hard. We need represenatives like yourself who feel the pain of the people and who are willing to speak truth on behalf of the people. I don't get these politicians who act as though they are gods and they are not accountable to anyone but I guess since we the people have not challenged them, they have continued so long in this way of thinking so they feel that their right. I know that change has to take place but it can only happen if we get the kind of people in office who know that they are ambassaders for the people and that the people are not suppose to serve them. Servant definition is, one employed to care for someone or his/her property. Yes, servants are to care.

[crazyv]

can we please stay focused on what is important- Obama's birth certificate.

Of course the middle class is being screwed and they well deserve to be. When people can't figure out for themselves that they are being played by the political parties and get distracted by drivel they have nobody to blame but themselves.

But got to run important things to do like watching football and American idol.

[plumnelly]

Campaign finance reform, it's the only way or a revolution by the masses. There's more of us than them!

[BlueSkyPilot]

Way to go Washington.

Billions for the too big to fail thieves on wall street who caused this mess with senseless gambling and bend over backwards for the for profit muderers who take money from everyone and deny them the care they paid for.

Nothing for the people. We don't have armies of lobbyists to bribe you and your overpaid aides all we can do is work to pay the bills you make.

Who said there is no slavery in America.

While debating wether the american people should have health care the theives on the hill are granting their corporate masters even more power to cheat, defraud and steal from the middle class.

We should all be writting and calling our representatives and senators to demand they stop robbing us blind.

When are we going to say america is too big to fail and act to save it?

[HadBetterDays]

What I have fund to be extremely upsetting is that there is noone in Washington standing up for the middle class. I ran a construction company that has been in my family for over 60 years. Well we're finished and we officially closed our doors last month, obviously due to the crisis that we're in right now. While we were trying to keep the business afloat I borrowed against my persoanl credit lines and subsequently fell behind on those payments. Now I am finding out that when I apply for a job now, most employers are running your credit report in order to "evaluate my character". I had a 840 beacon score 8 months ago and now I have poor character?

Congress should write a bill that stops this practice immediately! Even if on a temporary basis to help get the economy on track. Imagine loosing everything through no fault of your own and now you can't be considered for a job because of it.

[Flavor]

HadBetterDays, you are right and that is something i hate in fact I think it's pure discrimination, fithermore you are not a bad person you have got caught up in this mess that has depleted the middleclass. I don't know the website but there is one where you can set your own site, its free. You can word it the way you want & have people sign your petition and I would be your first signature because I agree with you. It will get better for you.

[TimnySlagle]

It's not the Right that is destroying the middle class, it is the Left.

Since we don't tax wealth, "Progressive" Income tax doesn't hurt the wealthy, it hurts the workers. It is a way of keeping hard working individuals from acquiring wealth.

And why do the elite environmentalists get to take private planes to Oslo to pick up trophies, while the rest of us are told that our thermostats are set too high.

It is every Leftist's dream to have a two class system.

[plumnelly]

It worked, the elitists have the middle class fighting each other. 1% owns America, that's who is ruling , we don't have a democracy we have a corporate government. Heard of K street?

The two parties are a ponzi scheme, they neither one represent the American people interests anymore.

Both parties sold us out to China's interest, not America's. Our president couldn't even meet
with the Dalai Lama because we might offend the despotic country China. They ship millions of poisonous crap to our country and still not held accountable. " POISONOUS SHEETROCK IMPORTED FROM CHINA AND PUT INTO OUR HOMES UNKOWINGLY."

Corrupt republicans as well as corrupt and bought off democrats have sold out their country. Don't be so naive to think the American middle-class aren't being played by both parties, it's an easy game, especially, now in these hard economic times.

[TimnySlagle]

The Republicans aren't as class structured as the Democrats.

The Democrats have encouraged class warfare for years. It is a remarkable political tool. By pitting a larger demographic against a smaller one you can gain a majority. It is quite effective when people buy into the notion.

Truth is America is closer to a classless society than has ever existed in any any History or Geography.

[thismachinekillsfascists]

Open rectum, remove cranium.

It's not the "left" who have destroyed the middle class. It's the Republicans beginning with Ronnie Raygun. That's when ALL the wealth started trickling upwards while the only "trickle down" was urine falling on our heads.

[TimnySlagle]

A) President Reagan never called it "trickle down." Like "teabaggers" the word was a construct of opponents, to associate bad images with good ideas.

B) All Americans left the eighties wealthier than we entered them. The rising tides lifted all boats. Real median income soared.

[GreedyOleParty]

What middle class? It's no longer there.

[biwee]

The actions, or lack of actions, by the US Congress for the past 40 years
are at the root of this problem. Even today, about a year after the financial meltdown
of 2008, no real and meaningful laws have been enacted to help solve the issues
facing America. The US Congress has become a selfish and unrepresentative
organization. You get exactly the kind of governance you VOTE for. 90% of all encumbents
should be voted OUT fo office in the fall of 2010. But, it will not happen. And, it is too late.
Jimmy Carter left an annual budget deficit of about 900 million dollars. Over the next 28 years, the
annual deficits ballooned to the hundreds of billions, to now $1.4 trillion. When the dollar
collapses, and the US standard of living craters, maybe the voters will wake UP and stop
funding the American Empire. We can NOT afford it now.

[Ron44]

Listen to Berni Folks, he is telling it like it truly is!!!!

[CaptD]

The children of the middle class know what it is like to see their comfortable childhood be destroyed by the GREED OF THE BIGS (Oil, Wall Street, Banks, Pharma & ...)! I'm counting on them to lead the protests (like they did in the Sixties) that will effect change for BOTH their future and ours!
+
The stimulus package was a GIANT XMAS gift for the Greed Heads that are still holding America Hostage! If all that money was directed toward Main Street then America would now be buying and the middle class would be working; instead, now the middle class is becoming the "affluent poor" and America is starting to look more like Mexico, another Country filled with MOSTLY very poor people all looking for work...

[rain33]

at least bernie sanders is keeping it real!

[walt1944]

The mega-banks are making huge PROFITS! The Dow hit over 10,000! Wall Street traders are jubilant and Chinese manufacturers of $1,000 shower curtains are expecting an upswing in orders!

It's as if GWB and the neocons never left office!!!

This is "change we can believe in!"?????

[helonias]

"What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?"
-Matthew 16:26

Jesus answered, 'If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me.'"
-Matthew 19:21

[helonias]

Luke 12:44. "Sell your possessions and give alms; make yourselves purses which do not wear out, an unfailing treasure in heaven, where no thief comes near, nor moth destroys. For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."
Mt. 19:20ff. The young man said to Him, "All these commands I have kept; what am I still lacking?" Jesus said to him, "If you wish to be complete, go and sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven; and come, follow Me."

[walt1944]

These Biblical quotes do not exist in the NEWLY REVISED NEOCON BIBLE!!!

Matthew's quote has been replaced with, "Go and grab EVERYTHING YOU CAN, IGNORE THE POOR, and MAKE as MUCH MONEY and GRAB ALL THE POWER you can!"!!!!