Llook at the alternative that has unfolded since the 1980s. Major tax reform under Ronald Reagan enabled the wealthy to thrive to the point that 20 percent of America holds 90 percent of the nations wealth. Meanwhile, the bottom 80 percent of the working population increasingly have lesser-skilled jobs in places such as restaurants, retail stores, and hospitals. These jobs often pay little more than minimum wage; include few, if any, benefits; and dont provide opportunities to develop skills or advance. Even the economic elite are starting to worry that the system is not only inequitable but dangerous. Billionaires such as Warren Buffett and Nick Hanauer have publicly sounded that alarm. Labor unions have less strength today in standing up for the middle class, so Im glad to see the president taking action. But the conservative Congress is unlikely to play ball. Obama seems to be the only realist in Washington to see that this trend is not sustainable, and may be steering us down the road to becoming a banana republic, where a wealthy elite lives behind iron gates in cloistered suburbs while the rest of the population scrambles just to make ends meet.
Posted on: Sun, 25 Jan 2015 12:51:06 +0000
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