Great Depression? Or was it history that looked back and named it so?
How did our middle class diminish so drastically? If we have learned one thing in this 21st century, it is that we cannot trust the robber barons not to rob. "Trickle down" economics is a fallacy and a fantasy for the wealthy who long had their buckets in place to catch any spill-over.
I will give history a heads up and name this The Great Decline.
It encompasses more than the decline of the middle class, it encompasses the politics of hate and contempt. We are led to be contemptuous of those who have less. We are embroiled in a war on words. We mention race or racism are immediately called racists. We talk about the disparity of wealth distribution and charges of class warfare are leveled against us. The Relentless Machine Which Churns Fear and Divisiveness is fueled by Fox New Corp and the Koch brothers. It encompasses a populace so divided, and so unsure of themselves that they routinely vote against their own economic interests or vote not at all.
Last summer I moved from a lifetime in Silicon Valley to Iowa. I have moved away from the abstract liberalism of the Bay Area to a place where the reasons we need Bernie Sanders are strikingly obvious. This is not the America I learned of as a child. The America I learned of as a child was full of opportunity so that anyone could pull themselves up and have a decent wage, a good life, and a chance to raise children who could achieve even more.
What I encounter here in this Midwest is starkly different. I do not recognize this America. The American dream is that we are all able to pull ourselves up, but there are entire rungs of the ladder missing here. The rungs of the ladder that one can reach to and pull oneself up with are gone. They have just vanished and people are left dangling at the bottom over an open pit where they will fall headlong into homelessness.
There are great divides in this country. In Silicon Valley, I never felt without opportunity. The culture raised me to believe in my talents and abilities. I feel that I get an equal rate of return for whatever effort I put in and often times more. But here in Iowa, I see hard working people who take on 2 or 3 jobs. Each are twenty-five to thirty hours per week with no benefits, sick leave or paid time off. There are no allowances or leeway. They are "asked" to work holidays. It is reprehensible that we are treating the very backbone of our society this way. Iowa is a very family oriented state. It is a great place to raise children. These parents have to keep their child home from daycare when they themselves are sick as they cannot afford it. Schools and daycares give the children their meals provided by the Iowa Food Bank. 3 out of the 4 public elementary schools in the neighboring Mason City are rated below the national poverty level and children are given their meals there.
Not long ago, I read a Facebook thread regarding people who work in fast food. There were comments like, "McDonald's was not meant to be a career path." and "If you want more money, get a better skill set." There is some ignorance of circumstance in these particular statements and I will raise my hand first to admit that at one time, these sentiments may have come from my own mouth.
From my view, there is not the vast array of job opportunities that I had become use to in the San Francisco Bay Area. People work their entire lives in retail, or restaurants, or fast food here. These people are white. Yes, I will talk about race. In California our Latino brothers and sisters take the jobs no one else wants. Much like my great-grandparents from Germany, Denmark, and Ireland, people come to America for a better life.
Bernie Sanders wants to end this abuse of the American worker. He wants to raise the minimum wage to $15.00 per hour. Bernie Sanders wants to end the corporate welfare that makes taxpayers take up the slack when corporations like Walmart routinely send their employees to sign up for food stamps and other social services. This corporate welfare model applies to nearly every job situation I see out here.
How can we have American companies employ us and we still do not have enough money to eat? Bernie Sanders wants to end all this.
We are Americans. These are American corporations. These are American jobs. We are the richest and strongest country in the world. This abuse of the American working class must end and we must all work together to see Bernie Sanders as President of the United States.
