This nation has been becoming more and more class stratified since the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. 40 percent of the income growth in the 1980s and 1990s went the top 1 percent. That stratification has accelerated since the criminal Bush regime took over through a judicial coup in late 2000.
Many of us have heard about the Two Americas. And many of us have heard about some of John Edwards' proposals for real change, like the universal health care plan or the Working Society to end poverty. These plans are part of a unified strategy to change the Two Americas into One America.
Yesterday, at the United Steelworkers Union Conference, John Edwards outlined his agenda to create One America. A key part of that agenda is the Blue/Green Alliance, raising the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2012, strengthening the right to organize, and universal health care. Come around after the fold for more.
In his speech at Cooper Union in June, John Edwards said:
Today, the top 300,000 Americans now make more than the bottom 150 million put together.
Productivity is up but median income is down. People are making more, while they're making less. Men in their 30s today earn less in real dollars than the men did 30 years ago. More and more women have gone to work, and now married couples with children are working an average of 10 hours a week more than their parents did. Working families with breadwinners in their 40s are almost three times more likely to fall in to poverty than they were a generation ago.
What does all this mean in real terms? It means that our system rewards wealth, not work.
Cooper Union
Before the United Steelworkers Union Conference yesterday, John Edwards described his plans to make One America. John Edwards recognizes that making the One America will require the Blue/Green alliance:
"The Blue Green Alliance really can create 1 million, 2 million new manufacturing jobs to replace some of the jobs that have been lost," Edwards told about 600 political activists from the United Steelworkers of America union at a conference on reviving U.S. manufacturing.
The Blue Green Alliance was formed last year by the union and the Sierra Club to promote job creation and work on environmental initiatives including global warming and development of solar and wind power.
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Here is a little more on the Blue/Green Alliance from the 2006 announcment of its formation:
"The Blue/Green Alliance is one of the most important initiatives undertaken by the environmental movement in decades," said Carl Pope, Executive Director of the Sierra Club. "We have reached a point in the development of a global economy where we can either use our planet’s resources for long-term sustainability or to create an ever more dangerous polarization of wealth and poverty. Our new alliance allows us to address the great challenge of the global economy in the 21st century--how to provide good jobs, a clean environment and a safer world."
"Good jobs and a clean environment are important to American workers--we cannot have one without the other, said Leo W. Gerard, International President of USW. "In fact, secure 21st century jobs are those that will help solve the problem of global warming with energy efficiency and renewable energy."
Rasing the minimum wage to $9.50 by 2012 and indexing it to inflation is another key part of the Path to the One America.
"Raising the minimum wage is one of the most important steps we can take to lift working families out of poverty and into the middle class," said Edwards. "No one who works full-time should have to live in poverty. If a job takes you away from your family every single day—or for many low-wage workers all through the night—it had better pay you enough to support them. As president, I will raise the minimum wage and put our economy back on the side of working families."
Edwards Calls For Minimum Wage Increase As Part Of Plan To Build One America
In his speech to the Steelworkers, John Edwards described several aspects of his Path to One America, some of which are listed below:
Raise the Minimum Wage to $9.50 an Hour: Edwards will set a national goal of a minimum wage that equals half the average wage. He will raise the minimum wage by 75 cents a year until it reaches $9.50 in 2012. He will also restore the minimum wage for tipped workers to half the full minimum wage—the minimum wage for these workers has stood at $2.13 since 1997—and extend wage and hour protections to home health care workers.
Strengthen Workers' Right to Organize: Edwards will enact the Employee Free Choice Act, vigorously enforce labor laws and ban the use of permanent replacements for striking workers.
Help Low-Income Families Find Work and Join the Middle Class: Edwards has set a national goal of eliminating poverty within 30 years. He will cut taxes on low-income workers by expanding the earned income tax credit for single workers and reducing its marriage penalty. He will create 1 million Stepping Stone jobs to help people struggling to find jobs gain skills and work experience. He will also expand affordable housing near good jobs, rather than concentrating it in high-poverty neighborhoods far from opportunity.
Make College Affordable for Everyone: To help students work their way through college, Edwards will pay one year of public-college tuition, fees, and books for more than 2 million students who take a part-time job.
Enact Smarter Trade Policies: Trade deals need to make sense for American workers, not just corporations. Edwards will insist on strong labor and environmental standards, vigorously enforce American workers' rights, and help workers and communities hurt by global competition.
Guarantee Universal Health Care: Edwards has a truly universal health care plan that will guarantee affordable coverage to every family. Employers will have to help cover their employees, the government will make insurance affordable with new reforms and subsidies, and all Americans will buy insurance.
Fight Abusive Debt and Help Families Save: Edwards will crack down on abusive credit card companies, predatory mortgage lenders, and payday loan shops that take advantage of working families. To help families save, he will provide matched savings accounts for low-wage workers.
Rewarding Work And Helping Families Get Ahead
Real change. It's the Edwards diffference.