Yesterday
bonddad did a diary entitled
Class War: It's Time. Later that day
sln70 asked
Would You Sell Your Shares in the American Dream for freedom? Both diaries deal with what ought to be the central issues in the 2006 campaign. Today we see a confluence of major stories that reflect the frustration of most Americans as they try to support themselves and their families and live out their ideas of the American Dream.
Parade Magazine is distributed in hundreds of papers nationwide and has a circulation of over 30 million.
Today's Parade Magazine cover story: Is The American Dream Still Possible?
For this report, we focused on U.S. households earning between $30,000 and $99,000 a year. Most of those surveyed describe themselves as married and having a family. More than 64% say they are employed full-time or part-time. Most say they are in reasonably good health and have a satisfying religious or spiritual life. They own a home and at least two cars, and they are able to take vacations. By international standards, they live a life of prosperity.
Yet behind this prosperity is a growing unease. Half of the employed respondents say that they've experienced either increased health-care costs or a cut in health benefits over the last three years, and 39% have had cuts in their overtime, raises or bonuses. Almost two-thirds say they live from paycheck to paycheck, and 47% say that no matter how hard they work, they cannot get ahead. More than a third worry about job loss.
It is this unease that will toss the Republicans out of Congress provided that Democrats can show that they are the party that can restore a sense of economic progress.
The Stressed Middle Class
National statistics show the increasing pressures on middle-income Americans:
* The real median household income declined 3% from 2000 to 2004.
* The percentage of households earning $25,000 to $99,999 (roughly middle-income range) shrank 1.5% from 2000 to 2004.
* Last year, real average weekly earnings actually fell 0.4%.
* The savings rate for Americans is the lowest it has been in 73 years.
* Credit-card debt is at an all-time high, averaging $9,312 per household.
* The average cost per year of a public college (in state) is $12,127, a 25% increase since 2001.
* A private university costs $29,026.
This is the news that is creating a sense that the country is heading in the wrong direction, even beyond the Republican's flawed Iraq policies.
Unions are now pushing class warfare and using CEO's bloated pay and retirement to organize new workers.
From the Associated Press via the WaPost today:
Breakaway Labor Group Launches Campaign
A coalition of breakaway unions is launching a national campaign that highlights the gulf between pay and benefits for executives and middle-class workers with television ads and a drive to organize millions in service industries.
The federation is spending more than $500,000 airing an ad that will point to huge salaries for chief executives. It will run on network news shows on Sunday and on cable news channels during the week, Tarpinian said.
Until Ronald Reagan and the era of Greed is Good, the Democratic Party was seen as the party of working men and women, the party that could be counted on to stand up to the rich and powerful and fight for a middle class and a safety net for the poor. Republicans have managed to create an image of the Democrats as liberal elites who cater to special interest groups. It is time for the Democratic Party to reclaim the mantle that gave it control of Congress for 50 years and the Presidency for decades at a time. We don't have a right wing noise machine, all we seemed to have on this issue was Lou Dobbs. Now we see more focus not because a handful of people decided to examine the shrinking middle class, but because the increasing pressure on the poor and middle class needs a release.