I spend a lot of time talking about the struggles of America's middle class, but sometimes I need to stop to say out loud that poor families have it so much harder.
Even the smallest day-to-day problems can crush low-income families. Car trouble or a sick baby can mean losing days at work. Any emergency can mean a trip to a payday lender and stepping into a trap that can cost thousands of dollars. And piled on to the economic stress is the reality that the ugly claw of violence tears more often at poor families than rich ones.
The same erosion of investment in the future that is hollowing out America's middle class is destroying the even more limited opportunities that poor families have to pull themselves forward.
I won't pretend that fixing this is easy – especially not with a Republican Congress that time and again puts the needs of millionaires and billionaires before working people.
But that's why we keep fighting to raise the minimum wage. It's why we fight to make sure women don't get fired for asking what their male coworkers make for doing the same job. It's why we fight for better schools and to make it easier for kids to go to college. It's why we fight for Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. And when times get tough, it's why we fight for unemployment benefits.
For me, that's what this is always about. Are we a country that builds a future for only some of our children, or do we build opportunity for all of our children?
We fight side-by-side because no matter where a child is from, no matter what a child's parents do, no matter a child's background, every child in this country deserves a fighting chance to succeed.
Thank you for being a part of this,
Elizabeth
P.S. Opportunity is built one brick at a time. In just a few weeks, the Senate is going to vote again on our bill to let people refinance their student loans. In June, every Democrat, every Independent, and three Republicans voted to move the bill forward – but we're still two votes short. Send an email, make a call, or show up to an event with your senators. If they voted for Bank on Students, thank them for their support. If they didn't, ask them to put students before billionaires this September. We can do this.
So, if 'the economic playing field has been tilted to favour the rich and the corporations' then the government should tilt it firmly the other way which will, 'ipso facto', make things *worse* for the rich and the corporations.
ReplyDeleteCrikey, why didn't I think of that? I mean, it's happening - NOW - just across the water in la Belle France where socialist Presidente Hollande has raised taxes, raised the minimum wage and kept in place the very generous working conditions for the plebs which means they only work 35 hours a week.
How's it going down? Like a shit sandwich I would say as the rich flee, corporations shift abroad, inward investment from other countries comes to a halt and new business start-ups are minimal.
Well done, Senator!
Why does economic fairness scare you so much?
ReplyDeleteIt doesn't scare me, it makes me snigger, like meeting someone who believes in Santa Claus. Mind you, it's scaring the hell out of the French who are readying themselves to vote 'en masse' for the far Right Fronte Nationale. Is that what you and Ms. Warren want, to turn the American people as far Right as possible?
ReplyDeleteNow you're just being ridiculous. You paint a picture that says the only choice we have is between a corporatism or a far right government. But the truth is that the right-wing in the U.S. has already sold out to the corporate interests. There is another choice -- a society where everyone participates on an even playing field. Other countries do it, and we once did it -- before you right-wingers came up with the silly trickle-down theory, and screwed everything up.
ReplyDelete