Over at Post your red hot issue with blogher
I can think of many issues that need to be addressed. But I’d like to think of a strong middle class in America
when I was growing up I knew we weren’t rich people but I knew we weren’t poor people either.
My mother grew up as dust bowl child during the great depression and my father had to head back to his parents home and work the farm for his room and board. (My parents were about 20 years apart)
So as for fast history lesson after the depression and then came World War II and my dad then got rehire on railroad and join the teamster union for the railroad.
Which made sure he had certain rights and protection. Paid a livable wage that bought clothes, had a nice home to live in although no mansion, and did everything the neighbor hood children did at that era.
Both my parents never even finished high school. My father went a little longer then my mom did about one semester of high school and dropped out and went to work on the railroad and put in 50 years for them.
As I was told the year I was born he was making about five dollars and hour, I was born in 1960.
Not saying I total want to go back and live life as a baby boomers.
In my honest opinion…I feel we as American have certain social right and obligation to our middle class
When a person finish high school and gets up and puts in 40 hour work week he or she should be able to furnish their family a home to live in, food on the table and don’t have to use food stamps, clothes on the back, an transportation so they can get back and forth to work.
I believe one person should be able to support a family of 4 on one income.
If he or she wants to get extra slice of the American dream I have no quorums about it by either by education or working overtime
But I don’t want us to go back and be over consuming nation, we also grew up with the Vietnam war, women had no choice of career and had to depend on man mostly to make the living unless your were a nurse or teacher, drunk driving was pretty well acceptable and alcohol wasn’t consider a drug. Food banks or pawn shops weren’t heard of or lease I didn’t hear of them
But we as people in America needs to reestablish a new and better middle class. The 3 steps we can do is.
1) Pay a livable wage for working people. Our C.E.O who runs our companies makes such a wage difference then the people who works for him or her.
There should be a cap on C.E.O salaries including there benefits. Opinion time...No C.E.O should make 20 times then his bottom paid employees
2) Learn not to consume as much as we do.
3) A better tax system or I should say a simpler or more fairer one
If we put back a middle class in America we would take care of lot of burning issue in America.
The America people aren’t lazy and has a lot of get up and take the bull by it horn
Spoken like a True Democrat. I Love IT!
ReplyDeletehey Dora, have put your name on the croning list on the new blog - hope you still want to be included :)
ReplyDeleteI have always been a firm believer that one should earn a living wage...one shouldn't have to work 2 or 3 jobs to put food on the table. Then the government wonders what has happened to the family unit....DAH!!!....You are right, I have always wondered why some of these CEO's make the salaries that they do plus their benefit packages...to me it is disgraceful
ReplyDeleteOver comsuming has to stop...our gas guzzling vehicles have to go....we really don't need SUV's in the city or Hummers....last time I checked we didn't have any sand dunes on Main street.
But I want to take this one step further.....Social programs....it should be a right not a privilege to have medical coverage....it should be a right and not a privilege to have access to higher education....it should be a right not a privilege to have access to good quality daycare....If we take care of the family unit...often the rest tends to care for itself...
I definitely agree that the cost of living in America today is a huge problem!
ReplyDeleteMy dad finished his education with student loans that were roughly 10% of his first year's salary. My parents' first house cost roughly twice his salary. His employer covered 100% of their medical premiums and they had no co-pays, cost shares, or deductibles.
Flash forward 3 decades and my DH finished his education with student loans that are roughly 110% of his first year's salary. Starter homes cost seven times his salary so we have to rent. We pay a $20-30 co-pay for each office visit, $10-$50 co-pay for each prescription, cost shares of 10-30%, and a couple hundred dollars per month for our share of the premiums.
We're lucky that we are still middle class, even if we're not as well off financially as my parents were at the same age. Too many others have been squeezed out of the middle class entirely :-(