The Middle Class is collapsing, and very few people in Washington Give a Damn.---Bernie Sanders

[bvar22]

"Here’s the truth. The middle class in this country is collapsing. The number of Americans living in poverty is nearly the highest on record and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is growing wider and wider. And very few people in Washington give a damn.

Year after year the American people have begged the Congress and the President to move aggressively to protect the middle class from total collapse. And, so far, their leaders have failed to act. Today, the American people are demanding action to create jobs for their kids and retirement security for their parents. They are deeply worried about the state of the economy, and they have every reason to worry.

- Real unemployment Counting those who have given up looking for work and those who are working part-time when they need a full time job, the real unemployment rate is 13.7 percent, not 7.3 percent.

- Average wages Non-supervisory workers have seen their wages go down by eight cents an hour since the beginning of the so-called recovery and are now a paltry $8.77 an hour.

- Income and wealth inequality From 2009-2012, the richest 1 percent of Americans captured 95 percent of all new income, while the typical middle class family has seen their income go down by more than $2,100. The Walton family, the owners of Wal-Mart, are worth more than $100 billion and own more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of Americans.

- College unaffordability Over the past 30 years, the cost of a college education has gone up by more than 250 percent. The average American graduating from college this year is drowning in debt of more than $35,000. Even worse, hundreds of thousands of high school graduates are unable to go to college each and every year not because they are unqualified, but because they can’t afford it.

- Childhood poverty We live in the richest country in the world, yet one out of five children in the U.S. is stuck in poverty. And the reality is that children living in poverty in America today are more likely to stay in poverty when they grow up than in any other advanced country on earth.

<more>
----Sen. Bernie Sanders
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_american_people_have_spoken_no_more_war_abroad_more_jobs_at_20130913/

Couple the above with:

Study: "Trade" Deal Would Mean a Pay Cut for 90% of U.S. Workers
The verdict is in: most U.S. workers would see wage losses as a result of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP), a sweeping U.S. "free trade" deal under negotiation with 11 Pacific Rim countries. That's the conclusion of a report just released by the non-partisan Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR).

TPP's corporate proponents have tried to sell the NAFTA-style deal to the U.S. public and policymakers by claiming that it will result in gains for the U.S. economy. They often cite a study from the Peterson Institute for International Economics that used sweeping assumptions to project a tiny benefit from the TPP. We brought that study down to size back in January, showing that, even if one accepts the pro-TPP authors' litany of optimistic assumptions, the much-touted "benefit" from the TPP would amount to an extra quarter per person per day.

http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2013/09/the-verdict-is-in-the-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-a-sweeping-free-trade-deal-under-negotiation-with-11-pacific-rim-coun.html

What else do you need to know?






You will know them by their [font size=3]WORKS,[/font]
not by their promises or excuses.

[liberal_at_heart]

1. People will eventually get fed up. It is already beginning to happen. I think politicians and

citizens alike will be shocked at the amount of support a true liberal candidate will garner once they start arriving on the scene. Look at DeBlasio. People had barely heard of him and bam just like that he wins. The support came like a Tsunami. We are ripe. We are ready.

[bvar22]

3. I've always believed that Truman was right!

[font size=3]
"I've seen it happen time after time. When the Democratic candidate allows himself to be put on the defensive and starts apologizing for the New Deal and the Fair Deal, and says he really doesn't believe in them, he is sure to lose. The people don't want a phony Democrat. If it's a choice between a genuine Republican, and a Republican in Democratic clothing, the people will choose the genuine article, every time; that is, they will take a Republican before they will a phony Democrat, and I don't want any phony Democratic candidates in this campaign."
---President Harry Truman

QED:2010[/font]


[font size=4]Leadership! "The Buck Stops HERE!" NO Excuses![/font]

[orpupilofnature57]

10. +1000 !!!!

[Cryptoad]

24. Yep ,,,

if we can just rid of those "UnWashed" Democrats everything will be rosy !

geeez

[Enthusiast]

33. No, he was speaking of Democrats that emulate Republicans.

Why not just stay in your Republican Party and leave our party alone.

[Cryptoad]

43. Seems like

the purist Obama Haters are more Republican than the center of the Dem Party


btw..... it may be your GOP , its not mine,
I have voted the Democratic Party line since 1980.

[NV Whino]

2. They'll give a tinker's damn when the riots start

Too little. Too late.

[bvar22]

5. That is probably WHY they are spending OUR money...

...building the Surveillance/Security Militarized Police State and shredding the restrictions on Government in the Constitution.
They have gotten pretty good at suppressing protest,
from arresting dissent Leaders on "suspicion" of causing trouble...
(SEE: St Paul, Republican Convention, 2008)

...to the New Normal of 1st Amendment Zones
(they have actually conned Dissenters into walking into their own "detention" cells.)

[NV Whino]

8. I don't believe we have forgotten the lessons of the Revolutionary War

The new country, America, won its freedom over a mightier power by eschewing the then accepted tactics of warfare. We are legion, and we will win… eventually.

[woo me with science]

30. +100000

[cantbeserious]

4. The Oligrachs And Corporations Own And Control The Politicians That Own And Control Us

[liberal_at_heart]

6. damn I miss him. We need a truth teller. Now that he is gone we don't seem to have one anymore.

[pa28]

7. Our own party leaders are doubling down on the policies that caused it.

The TPP and the TTIP are a gigantic middle finger to the overwhelming majority of Americans.

[orpupilofnature57]

9. Apathy has only one cure, empathy, and when they

rule in a world without a U.S. economy , stocks & slaves .

[ProSense]

11. What's Congress doing about it?

- Real unemployment Counting those who have given up looking for work and those who are working part-time when they need a full time job, the real unemployment rate is 13.7 percent, not 7.3 percent.

Congress is blocking everything. Essentially, that means they aren't doing shit. I made this point recently:

Alan Grayson said Congress spent weeks debating Syria instead of focusing on our economy

The reality is that Congress spent the more than two years prior to this debate doing nothing about economy.

Will this new anti-Syria internvention coalition work to pass a jobs bill and funding for infrastructure development?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023607937

Another day, another Obamacare vote (No. 41) in the House
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/09/12/1238390/-Another-day-another-Obamacare-vote-in-the-House

Republicans are blocking $100 billion in immediate infrastructure spending.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023353869

Raise That Wage

By PAUL KRUGMAN

President Obama laid out a number of good ideas in his State of the Union address. Unfortunately, almost all of them would require spending money — and given Republican control of the House of Representatives, it’s hard to imagine that happening.

One major proposal, however, wouldn’t involve budget outlays: the president’s call for a rise in the minimum wage from $7.25 an hour to $9, with subsequent increases in line with inflation. The question we need to ask is: Would this be good policy? And the answer, perhaps surprisingly, is a clear yes....the current level of the minimum wage is very low by any reasonable standard. For about four decades, increases in the minimum wage have consistently fallen behind inflation, so that in real terms the minimum wage is substantially lower than it was in the 1960s. Meanwhile, worker productivity has doubled. Isn’t it time for a raise?

Now, you might argue that even if the current minimum wage seems low, raising it would cost jobs. But there’s evidence on that question — lots and lots of evidence, because the minimum wage is one of the most studied issues in all of economics. U.S. experience, it turns out, offers many “natural experiments” here, in which one state raises its minimum wage while others do not. And while there are dissenters, as there always are, the great preponderance of the evidence from these natural experiments points to little if any negative effect of minimum wage increases on employment.

<...>

So Mr. Obama’s wage proposal is good economics. It’s also good politics: a wage increase is supported by an overwhelming majority of voters, including a strong majority of self-identified Republican women (but not men). Yet G.O.P. leaders in Congress are opposed to any rise. Why? They say that they’re concerned about the people who might lose their jobs, never mind the evidence that this won’t actually happen. But this isn’t credible...today’s Republican leaders clearly feel disdain for low-wage workers. Bear in mind that such workers, even if they work full time, by and large don’t pay income taxes (although they pay plenty in payroll and sales taxes), while they may receive benefits like Medicaid and food stamps. And you know what this makes them, in the eyes of the G.O.P.: “takers,” members of the contemptible 47 percent who, as Mitt Romney said to nods of approval, won’t take responsibility for their own lives.

- more -

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/opinion/krugman-raise-that-wage.html

Obama pushes $9 minimum wage bill in visit to red state Texas
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022822520

- Income and wealth inequality From 2009-2012, the richest 1 percent of Americans captured 95 percent of all new income, while the typical middle class family has seen their income go down by more than $2,100. The Walton family, the owners of Wal-Mart, are worth more than $100 billion and own more wealth than the bottom 40 percent of Americans.

You know what wouldn't have helped: Allowing the middle class tax cuts to expire. The tax changes for 2013 will have an impact, and so will the full implementation of the health care law.

- College unaffordability Over the past 30 years, the cost of a college education has gone up by more than 250 percent. The average American graduating from college this year is drowning in debt of more than $35,000. Even worse, hundreds of thousands of high school graduates are unable to go to college each and every year not because they are unqualified, but because they can’t afford it.

Rubio Comes Out Against Obama’s College Plan
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023514014

E.J. Dionne and Robert Borosage agree: push the President's best initiatives.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022807040

Still, the Senate did pass a budget so that's good, but the House has no interest in taking it up.

Wouldn't it be great if Congress fought for these issues with as much energy as they fought against the President's proposal on Syria?

On these issues, like war, they have Americans on their side.

[bvar22]

15. Yeah. a $9.00/hr minimum wage bill will turn things around!!!

Did you miss THIS part?
Study: "Trade" Deal Would Mean a Pay Cut for 90% of U.S. Workers ?
http://citizen.typepad.com/eyesontrade/2013/09/the-verdict-is-in-the-trans-pacific-partnership-tpp-a-sweeping-free-trade-deal-under-negotiation-with-11-pacific-rim-coun.html

[ProSense]

17. How about $10.10 per hour?

Sanders cosponsored legislation to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 an hour. That’s about what it would be had minimum wage kept up with inflation during the past 50 years. The federal minimum wage has been $7.25 since 2009. “$7.25 an hour is totally obscene,” Sanders said. “It is a starvation wage.”

http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=2e80f875-5a32-474a-909a-a40f414815af

Harkin, Miller Eager to Push an Even Bigger (Minimum Wage) Raise
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022439826

The Point is members of Congress can do something about it. They can best the President's proposal.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

21. Tell us how good the TPP is going to be for America.

Tell me how good it is to appoint corporate suits to positions of power instead of reformers.

[Cryptoad]

23. Have you seen the final draft?

Will Congress approve it?

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

25. It's alright. You can let PS answer. There's no need to jump in when her answer will suffice.

[Cryptoad]

26. i didnt answer anyting

I asked two question,,,, another sat nite funny?

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

28. "i didnt answer anyting"

Really?

Actually you've said quite a lot so far, but I'll still wait for PS to answer.

[Cryptoad]

31. opps

here is a "h" to use where you think needed. I would wait for PS too.... thats why I didnt answer.

[tazkcmo]

29. Good luck with that. n/t

[Enthusiast]

34. How about the TPP?

Why is the President pushing this crap on us against our wishes?

[pffshht]

40. Your wishes and a trillion dollars

Will buy you a trade policy you like better.

What, you don't have a trillion dollars?

Then your wishes aren't worth jack. A career in assembling electronics to send to China or answering tech support calls from India is in your future.

[kentuck]

48. Fopd infation makes it hard on us old folks

Congress should do something about it. It's basic humanity.

[paleotn]

12. One of the few inside the DC bubble

...who really gets it. Way to go, Bernie!! Hey, Vermont! Can we borrow Senator Sanders for awhile? He can replace Burr (yuck!) and teach Hagen what it means to be a true Democrat.

[woo me with science]

13. Huge K&R. We can always count on the clear, unvarnished truth

Last edited Sat Sep 14, 2013, 10:35 PM - Edit history (1)

from Bernie Sanders, and from you, bvar22. Thank you for being here.

[MrsKirkley]

14. Bernie Sanders

The best Senator ever! How great this country would be if we had more like him.

[deutsey]

16. As someone who made it from the working poor into the middle class

I've been saying this for a few years now.

[840high]

18. k/r

[Octafish]

19. Washington works wonders for Wall Street

Hasn't done squat for We the People in a long time -- Jimmy Carter seems to ring a bell, other than that it's been NAFTA and getting rid of Glass Steagall for the Banksters a go go.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

27. Wall street is one hellofa drug.

[Rebellious Republican]

20. Great Post! Thanks K&R. N/T

[snot]

22. K&R'd & bookmarked.

[Scuba]

32. Fortunately our twice-elected Democratic President has been very vocal on this issue ....

... oh wait, never mind.

[Enthusiast]

35. Kicked and Recommended! nt

[woo me with science]

36. Damn straight. But it's not that they don't give a damn.

They are selling us out.

Study: "Trade" Deal Would Mean a Pay Cut for 90% of U.S. Workers
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023661805

Obama Appoints Bain Capital Consultant Jeff Ziets to Top Post
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023662209

Obama selects former Monsanto lobbyist to be his TPP chief agriculture negotiator
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023662210

White House: No Subsidies for Union Health Plans
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014594512

War Criminal Henry Kissinger Top Speaker At State Department Conference
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023660916

Kerry is meeting with Kissinger today for advice on Syria
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023646267

Pentagon says "boots on the ground" may be needed in Syria after all
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023670821

The USDA’s Reckless Plan to Decrease Food Safety
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023670859

The Totally Unfair And Bitterly Uneven 'Recovery,' In 12 Charts - HuffPo
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10023662029

Larry Summers Gets 'Full-Throated Defense' From Obama In Capitol Hill Meeting
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1014553343#post1

This is a complete list of Wall Street CEOs prosecuted for their role in the financial crisis
http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=view_post&forum=1002&pid=3653154

Wall Street will get away with massive wave of criminality of 2008 - Statute of Limitations
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022516719

[KG]

37. i wanna be more sympathetic to the middle class, but they've voting GOP for decades.

they're starting to get their ROI now.

[malaise]

38. It's true but what percentage of the middle class across the globe

give a damn??

[mathematic]

39. Avg hourly earnings are $20.20 not $8.77

No wonder people think all sorts of stupid things about the economy when even a senator is so embarrassingly off the mark.

http://www.bls.gov/news.release/empsit.t24.htm

[chervilant]

49. Interesting...

Does that average include the individuals who earn in one minute an amount it takes me a year to earn?

(BLS? I'm skeptical...)

[mathematic]

53. Probably not

It's "non-supervisory" work, so no ceos, etc. I don't know how they account for movie stars and baseball players. Feel free to actually click on the link. You'll see the breakdown by various industry. There are 2000 hours in a standard full time work year. So do a little multiplication and see which number makes more sense: Sanders' from-thin-air number or the actual number.

Also, BLS skepticism is nonsense of the highest order and should be left to anti-government lunatic libertarian gold-bugs and whatever hideous corner of the internet they like to hang out in.

[chervilant]

55. When I read posts like yours:

Also, BLS skepticism is nonsense of the highest order and should be left to anti-government lunatic libertarian gold-bugs and whatever hideous corner of the internet they like to hang out in.

I have to wonder: do you converse like this face to face, using condescension and sarcasm? Do you honestly think verbal bullying promotes your position? Do you think you sound learned? Do you think you're getting respect from other DUers?

I've developed a strategy for eliminating such vitriol from my experience of this forum. (I'll trust that you understand this strategy, and will not waste time posting a response that I choose not to see...)

(And, btw, my skepticism about BLS data stems from years of graduate work exploring the ways that such data can be collected and manipulated to yield results that serve specific agendas -- Babbie is a good resource for those who want to promote responsible methodology.)

[JDPriestly]

41. K&R. Can't talk about these facts often enough.

[antigop]

42. K&R. Thanks, bvar22. nt

[Spitfire of ATJ]

44. "children living in poverty in America today are more likely to stay in poverty"

This is one thing that annoys me is the whole "work hard and you will be a success" nonsense that now is translated as "the poor are only poor because they are lazy". This is often expressed by people who have had it good and consider themselves to be superior.

If someone poor DOES get a job it's often with an attitude that the employer is "taking a chance on them" and they are certainly not given anything with any REAL responsibility or access to assets because it's just ASSUMED the poor can't be trusted and will steal without supervision. Doesn't matter how smart they are or how good they are. They can often work at the place for decades and will always be judged by their condition when they were hired and the attitude is they must work for less under fear that they will be returned to poverty at the whim of the boss.

This is why it's a good idea to get the record of holding down a job and get the hell out for another job even if the pay is the same. You will then be hired as someone who is a current worker with ambition instead of a guy desperate for anything.

In small towns where everyone knows everyone it is especially hard to make it once you are poor as people will think of you as worthless. This is why a lot of people move out of small towns for a fresh start.

The Horatio Algers myth was really popular during the Great Depression as it made people really believe in the idea that they could rise up from their misery but it was a very rare exception. Not the rule.

[kentuck]

45. THAT SHOULD BE OUR SLOGAN !

YEAH, I'M SHOUTING .

[Jefferson23]

46. I wish he would run for POTUS, he has said no in the past.

His message is always clear and articulated with a remedy
for all the ills of this country.

K&R for Sanders.

[Autumn]

47. As one who has gone from middle class to poor, I know that Bernie is correct.

rec

[lordsummerisle]

50. Still wondering

Why OWS didnt have more of an effect or did it and im just not getting it?

[gopiscrap]

51. Thank you Bernie Sanders

like I have said before, I have a feeling we are headed for a depression or revolution.

[R. Daneel Olivaw]

57. Perhaps both? Now that would suck, and all the people ever really wanted

was to live in peace and not be wage slaves.

[AzDar]

52. K & R

[Phlem]

54. K&R!

Excellent post bvar!



-p

[TheMadMonk]

56. As a matter of fact, 250% is just about spot on for 3% anuallised inflation.

Problem is not that the price of a college education has gone up. If anything it has dropped substantially in real terms. The problem is so much of the ability to defray costs along the way has been taken away. A whole generation of graduates never left the fast food jobs they took to pay their way. They're also still poor as church mice and no financial help at all. Today it is perfectly possible to step into a parent's shoes, or come to work under them at McDonalds, KFC, Pizza Hut, or wherever.

By the way, here in Australia, in those same 30 years, we went from 100% free tuition, with entry almost entirely by merit, to user pays, and student bodies in some institutions that might be almost exclusively foreign born, paying cash on the barrel head, and leaving the country at the completion of their studies.


We're selling our farmland wholesale to those same foreign nations. And what little manufacturing we have left is falling under foreign ownership too.

And the merely competent among the students we graduated are coming back on long term work visas, to fill places which can't be filled by local talent for a lack of properly qualified warm bodies. It doesn't help that most positions are contract at an effective rate substantially below all but the safety net award. (Essentially the rock bottom minimum wage across all industries.)


It's not happening to America in isolation.