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The Collapse of the Middle Class, Letters from Vermont and America
The official unemployment rate in the United States surged to 5.5 percent last month, the Labor Department announced this morning. The biggest increase in more than two decades will be on the front pages of the Saturday newspapers. Statistics are one thing. Real life is another.
As gas and oil prices soared and as the nation slipped into recession, I made a request to Vermonters on my e-mail list. I asked them to tell me what was going on in their lives economically. That was it. Frankly, I expected a few dozen replies. I was amazed, therefore, when my office received more than 700 responses from all across the state, as well as some from other states.
A Vermont mother wrote, "We have at times had to choose between baby food and heating fuel." A 55-year-old man from rural Pennsylvania said, "I am just tired, the harder that I work the harder it gets." A retired couple in Vermont asked, "Does anybody in Washington care?"
It is one thing to read dry economic statistics which describe the collapse of the American middle class. Since George W. Bush has been in office 5 million Americans have slipped into poverty, 8 million have lost their health insurance and 3 million have lost their pensions. In the last seven years median household income for working-age Americans has declined by $2,500. Our country, for the first time since the Great Depression, now has a zero personal savings rate and, all across the nation, emergency food shelves are being flooded with working families whose inadequate wages prevent them from feeding their families.
It is another thing to understand, in flesh-and-blood terms, what that means in the lives of ordinary Americans. The responses that I received describe the decline of the American middle class from the perspective of those people who are living that decline. They speak about families who, not long ago, thought they were economically secure, but now find themselves sinking into desperation and hopelessness.
These e-mails tell the stories of working families unable to keep their homes warm in the winter; workers worried about whether they'll be able to fill their gas tank to get to their jobs; and seniors, who spent their entire lives working, now wondering how they'll survive in old age. They describe the pain and disappointments that parents feel as they are unable to save money for their kids' college education, and the dread of people who live without health insurance.
In order to try and break through the complacency and isolation inside the Washington Beltway, I have read some of these stories on the floor of the Senate. I also assembled some of them in a booklet that I have distributed to every other senator because it is imperative that Congress and the corporate media understand the painful reality facing the middle class today so that we can develop the appropriate public policy to address this crisis.
The letters are not easy to read.
"We only eat two meals a day to conserve," one e-mail said. "My husband and I are very nervous about what will happen to us when we are old," wrote a woman from Vermont. "The pennies have all but dried up....Today I am sad, broken, and very discouraged," lamented another. "Some nights we eat cereal and toast for dinner because that's all I have." One man summed it up this way: "My mortgage is behind, we are at risk for foreclosure, and I can't keep up with my car payments."
Many of the e-mails have been about gasoline prices. "How devastating it has been for folks who travel great distances to get to their cancer treatment," one wrote. "I don't go to church many Sundays, because the gasoline is too expensive to drive there," said another. One man put it this way: "It costs me so much money in gas that my wife and I live on $6 per day to eat."
In straightforward, plan language, the e-mails tell a truth that all the economic statistics sanitize. "We are barely staying afloat," is how one writer summed it up.
More of the letters from Vermont and America are posted on his Web site here.
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And while all this occurred, Congress dawdled and wasted hundreds of billions $$$ on "EARMARKS."
Congress is even more to blame than president Bush, but there is plenty of fault in Washington to spread around.
JERRY
< When I spent time in the New England states - I recall the winter heating bill equaled the rent and that was many many years ago. I'm sure it hasn't gotten cheaper now. The fuel companies were sending out fliers letting customers know that they could stretch their payments out throughout the whole year to make monthly payments lower. How wonderful of them.
The world needs more affordable living - all the way around and in every aspect . . . . .OR much higher incomes (somethings gotta give!) >
All you folks want to lay all of the blame on the President, big oil, and corporate greed. You loathe successful people as if they actually took money from your pocket. Lets lay the real blame for the condition of the country where it belongs...right in the collective laps of Congress.
It makes no difference Dems of Repubs. Neither party is willing to get together in the middle. It is either far left envirornmental liberal extremists or far right wing conservative nuts. Those of us in the middle pay for the ideological wars they wage daily in the halls of Congress.
And there are far far too many people who believe that the government is their salvation; the solver of all of their problems. There are far far too many people who believe in "entitlement". All you have to do is look at the posts on this blog. Everybody feeling sorry for themselves because the government isn't taking care of them. That is not the governments job, but we have at least two generations of people who have been spoon fed this garbage and have come to believe it. The only entity responsible for taking care of you is YOU.
By the way, for all of you folks who hate the rich, big oil, and corporate America please answer this question truthfully ? When was the last time you asked a poor man for a job?
COMMUNISM=PRIVATIZATION/CAPITALISM
First let me begin by saying I've made corp America $millions.
What both Privatization Capitalism and Communism fail to realize is that there is a role for government to protect society. (Not the protection from gay marriage feared by the Christian right, used a puppets for blood money.) Both communism and privatization/capitalism believe in freedom, whether it be freeing the individual from class distinctions or creating free market conditions (Milton Friedman, market economies are inherently stable if left to themselves, laissez faire. )
Both communism and privatization capitalism assume that humans are altruistic, that they will not lie to each other in “free market” transactions or Marx believing putting humans in such conditions that they would not wish to exploit others. In a simpler form its kinda like Reagan’s“Tickle Down Economics”.
Also an assumption of privatization is that by examining a government’s performance versus the private sector cost savings will be generated. Per the Smith Group Consulting website, “This allows the governmental unit to develop a competitive strategy and return savings to its citizens in the form of better services and/or lower taxes”. If this were truly the case, we would have single payer health care, wouldn’t be spending billions, trillions on war in Iraq, and my property taxes wouldn't have gone up $400 a month in the Repub land of Gov. Mitch Daniels who is privatizing everything in Indiana.
So bottom line, Daniels, Bush, Chaney, Rove and McCain are no better than Communists.
Spoken like a true AM radio listener
Nope. Spoken like an older, experienced military vet who has been around long enough to have the common sense to know his butt from first base and not blame all of his failings in life on the government.
"Dittos--and don't forget about all those phony soldiers in Iraq who are going to vote for Obama"
--Rush Fan
I guess too many people had it very good and they just couldn't stand seeing things get even better. Along comes a cowboy who seemed very friendly and even though he was from a party known to favor the "elite" and the Corporations, they decide to give him a chance. What is amazing is the people give him a second term even though they could see that he is wrecking the country. I wonder what the worries would be now if there had been a Democratic President these past 2 election cycles. Probably some petty stuff instead of worrying about basics for the immediate future....let alone long term.
Senator,
There is a reason why my fellow Americans have very little regard for those in Washington...
You just can't seem to get anything done:(
Come back and talk to me, AFTER, you've just figured out how to stop American jobs from being Outsourced....
Reagan woke everyone up to the dream of unchecked, deregulated GREED... they bought it... here we are.
And a character in an apocalyptic novel says: 'Feast, hungry children, in the gated communities. They never gave thought that they would be so recklessly identifying themselves, did they?'
Yes, the Republican Party did find quite a mouthpiece in Regan. He hammered home what they all were thinking....and they got their way. Deficit spending went wild.
remeber people that the Democrats DO NOT have control of Congress and only have a 1 vote advantage in the Senate because Joe Lieberman says he will caucus with the Democrats.
I hope you will help make a Democratic Majority in the Senate by getting at least 60 Progressive Democrats in the Senate and as many more Progressive Democrats into the House as possible.
Remember they must be Progressive Democrats and not Conservative or Corporate Democrats.
We need to remove the corporate and conservative Democrats almost as much as the republicans or the USA will lose its Freedom and Prosperity to an even greater degree.
Labor democrats clearly do not have control. expect no meaningful trade or economic reform as long as the DLC holds major committee chairs. Until Pelosi, Emanuel, Rangel, Hoyer and the rest of the free trading bunch are gone there will be no change
from 'therealredstateblues':
"Labor democrats clearly do not have control. expect no meaningful trade or economic reform as long as the DLC holds major committee chairs. Until Pelosi, Emanuel, Rangel, Hoyer and the rest of the free trading bunch are gone there will be no change."
Amen to that. Dems need to put pressure on Obama and every incumbent representative to revise or repeal ALL job killing free trade agreements, starting with the WTO, NAFTA , and PNTR with China. We should ensure that Presidential Fast Track Authority remains dead & buried, never to be resurrected again.
We should consider the proposal by Congressman Michaud of Maine, stating that under WTO rules, we can put tariffs on imports if the trade deficit is large enough. Michaud's proposal can be found at either of the following links:
http://unlawflcombatnt.proboards84.com/index.cgi?board=globalization&action=display&thread=2512&page=1#7717
http://michaud.house.gov/article.asp?id=334
Candidates need to stop catering to rich Globalist campaign contributors, & return to advocacy for the American people, who continue losing jobs to outsourcing — thanks to Corporate America's quest for the cheapest global labor.
If multinational Corporations won't pay workers the equivalent of American wages, then they shouldn't be allowed to sell products to American wage-earners.
Multinational Corporations should not be allowed to have their cake and eat it too — dining at the American consumer market trough, but without feeding the same American workers who created the trough in the first place.
"Until Pelosi, Emanuel, Rangel, Hoyer and the rest of the free trading bunch are gone there will be no change"
And don't forget there are a bunch in the Senate who need to handed a pink slip. reid for one, feinstein, schumer , rockefeller etc. to the mix.
i totally agree with Mamacita's comment about how this administration has cooked the books for years and shouldn't be a surprise to NO ONE!!! I've said for years that they are hiding the real facts about our economic and job situation! This is crazy and sad for all of us!!!! And this so-called Pres. has also rigged every bad policy that he created so that it will take god knows how long for us to get out of while he and his croonies continue to reap the benefits while we suffer more!WE NEED A DEM. IN ofiice so that we can atleast start to heal and we also know that McCain will continue this same bull@#$% that we can't afford for ourselves,our children and our grandchildren!Please America wake up before Nov.!!GET THESE NUTS OUT THE WAY FOR GOOD!!!!!!!!!!!!! OBAMA'08
If the rich succeed in their campaign to create the same feudal system American forefathers fled from, as they are well on their way to doing, we will have only ourselves to blame, for they are few, and we are many. Keeping "the masses" in control through starvation (no one has the energy to resist) is an old tactic. Old tactics are all the repugnants have offered in my entire lifetime.Again, we have only ourselves to blame.We have become a largely lazy nation, convinced we are somehow deserving of a free ride. You have to WORK, people, for this COUNTRY to work. I hold a strenuous and stressful job(I make braces for the handicapped), and the day does not pass that I don't wish my life was different.All this misery is OUR fault, for not marching to Washington when the Florida Fraud took place. For sitting back, waving flags after 9/11 while the wrong enemies were targeted.For the war crimes committed by our "leaders".kFor the destruction of the Constitution. This world is of our making, people, and I, for one, am not proud of my child.
I agree with what you have said, but what do you suggest we do?
It's easy to assess where we are, but how do we get out?
I've been to impeachment demonstrations, the media won't even report them. Edwards spoke out for the middle class, the media refused to cover him.
Perhaps we should go out and tar and feather the media? I am not kidding. In the first American Revolution, the people were not afraid to get their hands dirty and break laws. They fought like they were fighting for their lives. What will it take to get us there now?
This Bush Admin has and always will be all about the Benjamins. The so called neocon philosophy has two intertwined basics: the raiding the Treasury and citizens and the furthering of the Robber Barren Class. Their love of "forced democracy" is just a rues for the real reasons. Oh, they're good. Any talk of economic divisions always brings out anguished crys of "class warfare." Classic case of one finger pointing at you while 3 are pointing back at them. Somewhere Upton Sinclair has a smile and scowl. The current oil prices are a last feeding frenzy by the Texas oil men, their Saudi Brothers and their Halliburton partners before their shot clock expires. Private armies, permanent war, no bid contracts, destruction of enviormental regulations, suspension of civil liberties. The list goes on and on.
Obama’s Office Won’t Deny Senator Attended Bilderberg
Senator Barack Obama’s office has refused to deny that the Democratic nominee attended Bilderberg last night following reports that he and Hillary Clinton were present at "an event in Northern Virginia."
As we reported earlier today, Obama’s press entourage were not informed of his secret meeting with Hillary Clinton in Northern Virginia until they were literally locked inside a plane that was taxiing down the runway on its way to Chicago.
Reporters were duped into believing that they were getting on a plane back to the campaign headquarters in Chicago with the presumptive nominee, while in reality Obama’s motorcade instead sped off in secrecy to Northern Virginia, which is also the scene of this week’s Bilderberg conference. The plane was stationed at Dulles International, which is less than a 20 minute drive from Chantilly Virginia as is shown below.
Bilderberg sleuth Jim Tucker called Obama’s office today to ask if he had attended Bilderberg. A campaign spokeswoman refused to discuss the matter but would not deny that Obama had attended Bilderberg.
Lots of people cried out about Bush's secret government.
How come no one is crying about Obama's?
.
Lots of innuendo, no evidence whatsoever.
Were they were 'attending Bilderberg' rather than at the home of Diane Feinstein, as reported by multiple members of the media.
Typical wacko conspiracy theorist nonsense. And even if they had 'attended Bilderberg,' so what?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bilderberg_Group
We ridiculed the Europeans with their government run/supported health care, education systems and energy systems. The euro has steadily grown stronger than the dollar.
Our government has had a hands-off policy on everything except the policy of making war on borrowed money. And not for our defense it turns out, but for the purpose of spreading democracy because President Bush and his gang thought it would be really neat.
The Republicans continue to stop changes and the Democrats are afraid to fight down to their level because they are afraid it might displease a voter group somewhere.
Our government has failed us and we failed to fix it at the end of the first election cycle.
We reap what we sow.
And people wonder why my disposition becomes darker by the day. Soon, I'll have to change from mouselion to grouchlion. We're screwed, coming and going.
If we had 99 Senators in Congress like you Bernie, we could solve numerous economic policies. But alas the greedy republicans have robbed our treasury over the last 7 years and given all our money away to their wealthy friends and democrats like Hillary allowed the rape and pillage of our economy by supporting a costly war.
Obama will inherit a mess.
Senator Sanders, these stories can also be told all around here in the midwest as we are literally watching out good paying manufacturing jobs evaporate every day right before our eyes, only to be replaced with low pay low/no benefit service jobs
As someone said below we are becoming the highest educated/skilled resturant and retail workers in the world.
On a related note, the supply side free marketeers continue to whine about this so called skilled worker shortage. I read where Michigan has the highest concentration per capita of enigneers and skilled tradesmen, yet Michigan also has the highest unemployment in the country
The books have been cooked to hide the true state of employment and the economy, as many of us have known for years. I am reminded of that every time I get my paycheck, which has increased a whopping $20 weekly after taxes and health ins. over the last 8 years. I can't even begin to figure out how much my expenses have increased over the same amount of time.
I'm not one of those "bitter" people, I'm just tired. Tired of the constant struggle. Tired of taking one step forward and getting shoved two steps back. Tired of laying awake at night wondering how to juggle paying the bills. Tired of worrying about how to send my kids to college, and IF there is any kind of job for them when they graduate. How do you plan a career when there is virtually no job field safe from being outsourced? How do you pay for that college loan when you can't find employment that pays a living wage? What is the point of going into debt up to your eyeballs if you can't get a job in your profession because it has been outsourced?
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