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.

Comments

[ahornick]

We've obviously gotten it badly wrong when hedge fund managers can make $ billions just moving around other people's money and not risking any of their own while middle America suffers. And how are we helped when those mega-bonuses are given tax breaks?

Sorry - there is absolutely no one who is worth paying billions to for services rendered.

[avraamjack]

.
This is the result of implementing an economic philosophy that excessively respects Adam Smith.
.

[ERose]

there is more than one answer to the problem...­.but right at the top of the list is ensuring any person who works can earn a livable wage. Anything less than that is a bandaid. People do not mind paying taxes as long as they do not have to sacrifice essentials, and fear for their future economic well-being. Every American deserves affordable housing, healthy food, good health care, higher education, and enough left over to save for the future. And that should apply to the most menial of jobs. Especially for those workers who break their bodies through labors of muscle and sweat. Why should a worker who sits in front of a computer make more money than one who works a physical job?

I know it is a shocker for some people to have to tighten the belt....bu­t for some it's been a lifestyle for a long time, and there are no notches left. And for every item or service folks are forced to do without, someone's job is on the line....th­e person who produces that job or service. Our economy is a leaking dike and only the wealthy live on high ground.

We don't know what is going on behind our neighbors' closed doors, but it is clear there is a lot of silent suffering. People are ashamed and embarrassed, when they should be angry and vocal! Get rid of NAFTA and the like and bring us our jobs and our dignity back.

[torrrep]

You are right. Americans have the right to these things. But they do not have a right to receive them for free. You have the right pay attention in school and to get good grades. You have a right to go to college if you pay for it or if you can qualify for government assistance. You have the right to not have kids when you can't even take care of yourself. This attitude of entitlement is what is destroying America. Everyone sits back and thinks about what is "owed" to them. It is a lifestyle for MANY people. If you have been living your whole life on minimum wage jobs while having kid after kid after kid and wonder why you can't get ahead then there is something wrong with you. You asked about the computer jobs. Are you saying that all jobs should be paid the same? If you don't like back breaking work then don't do it. No one is forcing you to do it. With your logic I should be in the NFL because I can throw and catch a football. I should also be in MLB because I can swing a bat. Maybe I should join the NHL because, after all, I can skate. Or maybe the NBA because I've hit my share of three pointers. Maybe I should be paid the same as a doctor because I took a first aid course once. Your logic escapes me.

[torrrep]

If you can't afford it anymore and can't sell it for what you paid for it then that tells me that you couldn't afford it to begin with. But I guess it's the government's fault that you made a bad decision.

[HanFeiTzu]

You've hit the nail-on-the-head. Our politicians, all of them, have left us down repeatedly in favor of the corporate gods.

There is a realistic solution. One only has to look at Great Britain where they employ a far more rational approach. The minimum wage is a function and graduated in three different brackets with the top level around $14/hour if my recollection and exchange rates still apply.

What is wrong with the people in this country tolerating this crap?

[MikeDu]

I recently heard someone say the mindset of the right-wing pretty much amounted to "I got mine, the rest of you can screw-off". That 'I got mine' mindset refers to everything - to economic security, cultural hegemony, civil liberties, etc. etc. So what happens to the swaggering right-winger when the stuff he's been hoarding disappears? When his economic security has withered, when his American® culture becomes an asterisk on the world stage, after he's traded all his civil liberties in for a dream of security? It seems to me the right wing entirely lacks the tools to mitigate the losses. Its like a man who finds himself stuck in a hole and his only talent is for digging deeper.

[TXfemmom]

Sooner or later, Americans will reach the place where polite community is lost, and then these screw the rest of the people may well find out what it was like to live in France during the Revolution there, and be either royal or very rich.

Americans pulled together through the Great Depression, but I think that polite poverty is not going to be the manner in which that type of thing would be faced today.

[anfractuous]

Hence gated communities. New York is an interesting contrast, where vast income disparity can exist within a few blocks without overt bloodshed ensuing. I wonder how bad things would have to get before this no longer held true?

[Vicco413]

I am one of those letters.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuQ8jl-PiRE

I have written letters, I have made phone calls, I have made phone calls and the answers are always the same... It is a shame, unfortunately there is no help for you... you fall into the black hole.

There are more benefits for prisoners being released from prison then for those who follow the rules and participate fairly in society...­.

As a disgruntled employee you can always leave and find another job... as a disgruntled citizen you are forced into poverty and then you simply become one of those street people everyone avoids.

[chendri887]

I so hear you, Vicco. Lord help us all.

[Diana]

Watched your video, Bob. I'm so sorry you are in the predicament you're in. I myself am unemployed and desperately looking for work--otherwise you'd be receiving my check straightaway.

I think your video is powerful and I wish you only the best.

[chendri887]

We are living in a corporate fascist state. The country has been drifting that way clearly for the past forty years, a little less clearly since the end of World War II. After World War II, American union membership was at an all time high, something like the high thirty percent range; Truman penciled in the military budget after meeting all domestic needs; and Truman twice tried to pass national healthcare legislation both times defeated by the Republican Congress. Today, the conservative right has got the fruition of their paranoia, religiosity, Social Darwinism, and militarism: The country is economically bankrupt; government is dead and useless; the borders are open feeding corporations with cheap labor; and the American middle class is dying if not dead. That Senator Sanders can express shock that this is the state of affairs shows how truly conservative even he, a "socialist" by some accounts, is. Why doesn't anyone in power step up and fight for the American middle class? Why do all we get are essays and speeches expressing faux empathy while another American goes homeless? American republic, RIP.

[observerII]

I am fifty years old. The only president that has had the guts to talk to America as adults and not whiny children is president Carter. President Reagen assured us all that by our manifest destiny we could squander our resources to no end. Every president since then has continued this insane idea. The chickens have surely come home to roost. The Chinese with their centuries of culture will have us children for dinner.

[darker]

Yes, it's a corporate fascist state.

Big Oil media campaign prepared consumers for
GREEDY PROFITEERING in oil prices. Now Big Food is doing the same.
Get ready for Media manipulated PRICE INCREASES.

It's called psychological MANIPULATION. And it works.

Bush-Cheney Rove do it all the time.
It works because Americans are suckers who don't question ANYTHING.

[scooperss]

Please preface Americans with the word *some*

Frankly, I don't even believe you..

[SILVANUS]

True of most, yes. So sad.

[khaleef49]

I am eligible to retire but cannot afford to because of insurance and gas prices. I am also worried about my grandchildren's education, so I continue to work so that I can help out. I am hoping that withing the next 5 years I will be able to retire.

[BatedBreath]

I retired recently and I'm beginning to regret it. My rates for electricity skyrocketed 20% as of June 1, just in time for a/c season which is a necessity rather than a luxury where I live. The excuse was that the utility company uses natural gas mostly to generate the juice and natural gas prices have gone up along with the rise in oil prices as if drawn by a magnet . I'm sure the increase in social security for next year will not be 20%. I'll be lucky if it's 2% since the current occupant will be the decider.

[faithinthefuture]

Bob Dylan saw all this coming:

Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
Can't help but wonder what's happenin' to my companions,
Are they lost or are they found, have they counted the cost it'll take to bring
down
All their earthly principles they're gonna have to abandon?
There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

All that foreign oil controlling American soil,
Look around you, it's just bound to make you embarrassed.
Sheiks walkin' around like kings, wearing fancy jewels and nose rings,
Deciding America's future from Amsterdam and to Paris
And there's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

Man's ego is inflated, his laws are outdated, they don't apply no more,
You can't rely no more to be standin' around waitin'
In the home of the brave, Jefferson turnin' over in his grave,
Fools glorifying themselves, trying to manipulate Satan

Big-time negotiators, false healers and woman haters,
Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition
But the enemy I see wears a cloak of decency,
All non-believers and men stealers talkin' in the name of religion

People starving and thirsting, grain elevators are bursting
Oh, you know it costs more to store the food than it do to give it.
They say lose your inhibitions, follow your own ambitions,
They talk about a life of brotherly love, show me someone who knows how to
live it.

There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

[faithinthefuture]

Bob Dylan saw all this coming:

Sometimes I feel so low-down and disgusted
Can't help but wonder what's happenin' to my companions,
Are they lost or are they found, have they counted the cost it'll take to bring
down
All their earthly principles they're gonna have to abandon?
There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

All that foreign oil controlling American soil,
Look around you, it's just bound to make you embarrassed.
Sheiks walkin' around like kings, wearing fancy jewels and nose rings,
Deciding America's future from Amsterdam and to Paris
And there's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

Man's ego is inflated, his laws are outdated, they don't apply no more,
You can't rely no more to be standin' around waitin'
In the home of the brave, Jefferson turnin' over in his grave,
Fools glorifying themselves, trying to manipulate Satan

Big-time negotiators, false healers and woman haters,
Masters of the bluff and masters of the proposition
But the enemy I see wears a cloak of decency,
All non-believers and men stealers talkin' in the name of religion

People starving and thirsting, grain elevators are bursting
Oh, you know it costs more to store the food than it do to give it.
They say lose your inhibitions, follow your own ambitions,
They talk about a life of brotherly love, show me someone who knows how to
live it. There's a slow, slow train comin' up around the bend.

[hippieforlife]

Well, I am glad that none of you had to wait in gas lines due to the gas shortage in the Carter years.

We need to stop blaming the Bush admin for all the bad things that happen. Some members of Congress have been there for over 25 years (and up). They have had ample time to "change our country" and make a real difference. They haven't.

What do you suggest should replace the free market? All I am hearing is how bad it is but nothing to suggest in place of it. If you are waiting for the Federal Government to take care of you, you will be waiting a long time. If they do, great. If they don't, you are responsible for yourself.

My grandparents and parents lived through the depression and they still managed to stay alive, raise families and live to see their families grown.

You need to trust yourselves and quit blaming everyone but you for the ills in this world.

[veracity]

Don't forget... the "Democratic" Party signed off on all these economic horrors when they bought in to the right-wing propaganda that to give the Black Congressional caucus a _simple_ Congressional investigation into (massive, systematic, recurrent) voter disenfranchisement in Florida in 2000 would "divide the country" or whatever the Republican BS talking points were at the time.

Having read Molly Ivins' book "Shrub" I was screaming at the TV, and pulling my hair out, "Why doesn't Al Gore bring up the BUDGET DEFICITS Texas Governor George W. Bush has created in that state since taking office?" Brother Jeb over in Florida did the same damn thing, turned (former Democratic) Governor Lawton Chiles' BUDGET SURPLUSES to ash in just a few short years, flat.

The fact that the Florida, Texas and national papers don't shout "BUSH DEFICTS!" from the front pages 24/7.... and that even the Democrats are too timid and cowering to make "Bush Deficits" the mantra of the decade.... simply illustrates the ol' "rise and fall" "bread and circus" nature of a society that gets too materialistic, complacent, and decadent.

[Integrity4US]

This isn't surprising. When Jimmy Carter left office the top 1% earned 8% of income. At the end of the Reagan/Bush years the top 1%'s share had grown to 14%. By the end of the Clinton years it was at 21%. Now it's about 25%.

The middle class has been getting squeezed for over 30 years. Many, many people have been getting by based on their rising home equity. With the collapse of the housing market they no longer have viable economic lives.

The concentration of income and wealth at top has gone hand-in-hand with the concentration of the media in the hands of a few.

This isn't the American dream of democracy and equality.

[Spender]

After 30 years in the radio industry, I was kicked to the curb by a business that Clinton deregulated.
Deregulation allowed near-monopolies to exist.
Ask former employees of Clear Channel; Cumulus; et al, what it is like to pound on doors, begging for work in your chosen profession when every station you beg belongs to the employers who just dumped your years of experience/loyalty into the rubbish bin.
The money you've saved over the years runs out quickly; mortgages and car payments, medical bills for treatment of your wife's cervical cancer (because you no longer can afford medical insurance) and the ever increasing energy bills all pile up very quickly and eat away at your savings.
I am now a janitor. I make 12.25 per hour and consider myself lucky that I can make THAT much more than the minimum wage, even though we can scarcely pay rent on our 600 dollar per month apartment, pay for gas to make the daily commute and still buy some groceries each week.
I am blessed in that my wife, still in recovery but doing very well, can handle our adversity.
I am blessed in that my fourteen year old daughter is made of stern stuff and understands why we are in this situation. She never complains.
Neither of them do.
They know that there are many more in situations much worse.
We hope that things will change and that things will get better.
Hope is all we have.

[dadw5boys]

Hurry get people back to work we can't miss any of those U.S. Aide Payments.