Sunday, February 19, 2012

From Smirking Chimp - "Class Warfare: Which Side Are You On?"

Interesting piece. Read it in its entirety. (H/T to Mikes Blog Roundup at C&L).

This struck out most, to me. I, too, have not seen any growth in my pay since 1980. I am STILL making the same amount of money per month that I made in 1980 -- no more, no less. I've struggled for 30 years raising my daughter and my grandson, and now that both are gone (she on her own, grandson stuck in a custody battle, but living right now in Chicago so I don't see him, am not allowed to talk to him, and I come to find out, the father fails to allow my grandson to even get the mail and cards I send to him), I am not as burdened by bills as I was during those 30 years. I live alone, sold my cars so that's a huge expense I do not have to endure (payments, insurance, gas, parking, tickets, etc.), and I just pay rent, (utilities included), my cable, internet and Vonage and cell phone bills. That's it, except my doctor I see every five weeks who only charges me $40 bucks, plus gives me my blood pressure medicine for free, and I pay $25 for my anxiety medicine, Valium. On that, I have been able to actually be free of financial worry on a day to day basis, but I have nothing to look forward as to future revenues (I will not be able to collect social security for various reasons, so I will have to work until the day I drop, unless my daughter eventually gets some kind of job after college that can help me in the future). Truly, if I lost my job, or my office closed up, I would be homeless in less than a year, unless I could still parlay my knowledge of the field of law and be taken in by one of the many lawyers I have befriended over the past 30 years and get some work despite my age (I turn 60 this year).

Perhaps working Americans do not understand how grave the situation is. A recent Mother Jones article graphically illustrated the problem: in the last 30 years the income of the one-percent has quadrupled and everyone else has experienced no growth. The Washington Post noted that in 2008, the average family income for the bottom 90 percent was $31,244 and that was a 1 percent decline from 1970. During the same period, the top .1 percent saw their income increase by 385% to $5.6 million. (The wealth divide is even more extreme; while the top 1 percent earn 21 percent of the nation's income, they now control 36 percent of our wealth.)


I am disheartened by the way our country is being run. I am sick and tired of the lying by everyone, democrats, republicans, teachers, lawyers, clients, ordinary people, newscasters, journalists, other governments. Lying is the new norm and for the life of me, I just do not understand how this bullshit crept up on us so that this country (and the world) is divided by the haves and the have nothings -- and there is very little outrage. Even the most have nothings that are on the right winger side, believe in and support things that simply hurt them even more. We've become a stupid world, and even those haves are not exactly smart -- just rich, and they use their riches to buy governments.

We are doomed as a world, and I wonder if I will be around long enough to see anything change.

2 comments:

Bob said...

The union auto workers in my town made more than my dad, lived in some of the nicest houses, & had a new car every other year. They earned that dough, because they would warn us not to do what they did, it was so mind-numbing. Going to college & becoming a teacher was a step up even though it paid less. No coicidence that middle class wage stagnation parallels union busting, & busting "overpaid" unions did not restore American manufacturing jobs.

Carrie said...

The overall assault on everything middle class by the uber rich over the past 12 months makes me sick to my stomach. Bomb Iran, ban the Girl Scouts, rape babies are a gift from God, etc. I don't recognize this country anymore, let alone the rest of the world. It's as if I am in a movie and I can't get out of it.