I am still totally amazed when I listen to people and hear them make disparaging remarks about hard working Americans. The corporate, wealthy, elite have done an outstanding job of making middle class America, the problem. They have brainwashed and dictated to middle America that the economic problems here are our fault. Corporate profits are the highest in history! The stock market is the highest in history! The amount of wealth controlled my the elite one percent is the highest in history! Corporate welfare, in the form of tax breaks and credits are the highest in history! The amount of money kept offshore to avoid all taxes, is the highest in history! The military industrial complex is producing more then ever in history! The amount of money that lobbyists are spending is the highest in history! The cost to get elected to any office, whether local, state or federal is the highest in history! What does this all add up to? The people at the top are doing the best in history and the middle class and below are doing the worst, in history.
What made America great was the middle class. This was our strength and the mostly white, corporate, elite had the hell scared out of them. They saw their power diluted by the rise of unions and the idea that people could collectively bargain for wages and benefits. So about forty years ago they started a long and slow attack on unions (middle class) that is in full gear today. They had to use the facts that some union leaders were corrupt and the unions had to be destroyed. If we used the corruption theme to our corporate leaders or politicians, they would all be gone.
Look back at history and the rise of unions. As the unions grew strong, wages started to climb. Working conditions improved. Benefits improved. Workers had the funds to buy cars, houses and the newest appliances. They had disposable income left at the end of the month. They saved and they spent. The went on vacations. Ate out in restaurants. Sent their children to college. Life was good and getting better, except for the corporations and the wealthy elite. Something had to be done. Their gigantic profits were being wasted on the workers. They had to be smart and not appear to have a frontal assault on white, middle class.
Step one, they started to convince the middle class that welfare queens were rampant. They were having babies just to get more money and then they could sit around, smoke cigarettes and live the high life, off of the hard working, white middle class. The realty was that for the few that did sit and receive a hand out there were so many more that were working, sometimes two or more jobs, to support their family. This diversion from the facts the elite, did very well.
The next step was to enact laws, such as right to work in states. The law makers were handed bushels of money and they in return handed companies the ability to fire people at will and pay them below poverty level wages. This is an ongoing success. They are still fighting the battle in some states.
Now they were armed with the laws to stop the unions from forming. This has been very successful at stopping the unions growth and currently, memberships in unions are at an all time low. Are the elite happy? No, they want to destroy all unions and are now assaulting the police, firefighters, nurses and teachers. They want to drive that stake through the heart of the unions and ultimately the workers of America. This is the POWER and they were not going to give it up.
What has been our response up to this point? We are actually supporting the corporations and the wealthy! Why? Why, are we attacking teachers? Why, are we looking to roll back our police and firefighters? Why are we not standing with the nurses? This is what has me completely stumped.
In my next post I will examine what we have to do to break this trend. Where we have to start moving to raise the American worker up.
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