The Undeclared War on America's Middle Class

An excerpt from Thom Hartmann's new book Screwed: The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class via AlterNet:

You can't be middle class if you earn the minimum wage in America today.

The American dream and the American reality have collided. In America we have always said that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can take care of yourself and your family. But the minimum wage is just $5.15 per hour. With a 40-hour workweek, that comes to a gross income of $9,888 per year. Nobody can support a family, own a home, buy health insurance, or retire decently on $9,888 per year!

What's more, 30 million Americans -- one in four U.S. workers -- make less than $9 per hour, or just $17,280 a year. That's not a living wage either.

The U.S. Census Bureau's statistics for 2004 show the official poverty rate at 12.7 percent of the population, which put the number of people officially living in poverty in the United States at 37 million. For a family of four, the poverty threshold was listed as $19,307. If the head of that family of four were a single mother working full-time for the government-mandated minimum wage, she couldn't even rise above the government's own definition of poverty.

Becoming middle class in America today is like scaling a cliff. Most middle-class Americans are clinging to the edge with their fingernails, trying not to fall. In the 1950s middle-class families could live comfortably if just one parent worked. Today more than 60 percent of mothers with children under six are in the work force. Not only do both parents work but often at least one of those parents works two or more jobs.

Click here for the rest.

You know, I hit on this subject just last Saturday, and this essay made me realize that I missed one more enormous sign that the middle class has effectively ended: the forty hour work week is almost completely gone; the fact that wages are so low not only means that most families no longer can make ends meet on one paycheck, but also that both mom and dad must work ever increasing hours. Some families are pulling it off, but just barely, and they are exhausted and always crunched for time--one financial disaster, like a car crash or a hurricane, means total ruin.

It's nice to see that the issue is being picked up by so many writers lately, but then, it's pretty obvious when you think about it all: this country is simply awash in cash and capital, so why the hell are we having to work so hard and so much? Answer: all the profit gains are going to the wealthy elite, despite increasing worker productivity. Trickle-down simply doesn't work. An expanding economy is only good for those who control it.

It's going to take some massive government intervention to set things straight again in this country, just as it set things straight in the first place. The Hartmann excerpt has some very good suggestions; go check it out.

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