Radical right politicians who now make up the core of the Republican Party, love to have the poor around. They love them because they are easy targets. The poor don’t have any real means to fight back. They serve as scapegoats for the problems we face, many of which are the result of Republican legislation. The crash of 2008, just like the crash of 1929, had two fundamental causes; the reduction of taxes for the rich and the deregulation of markets. But ask any good card toting radical righter and they will blame the crash of the poor. They blame the poor for taking loans pushed by loan officers looking for a good commission while meeting demands of Wall Street for more mortgages to turn in to “investment” instruments. Please don’t blame the Community Reinvestment Act which specified that good lending standards should be followed. They forget all the middle class families that played by the rules and were done in by deregulation and all the crooks on Wall Street who are morally deficient.
One result of the crash of 2008 is that it created many more poor people as middle class folks fell down the economic ladder. And now that they are there, the right wing servants of the wealthy are doing all they can to keep them there. Many of those who lost their jobs are forced to take low paying or minimum wage jobs. Mr. Marino and his soul mates are doing all they can do to prevent an increase the minimum wage. A wage which hasn’t kept pace with inflation. Keeping the minimum wage low allows for the further exploitation of the poor. Something that rich have always done. After all, the political right and too many on the supposed left, love the rich for all they do for their reelection campaigns. Low wages means more money for those at the top.
As income of middle class and low wage workers falls, the reactionary right is fighting to deny basic services for the poor. Food stamp funding (SNAP) has been cut. Nearly half of those who are severed by SNAP are children. Maybe the right will get rid of child labor laws so we can get those kids out on dead end jobs sooner. Low wage employers like Walmart and McDonalds increase their wealth by having we the taxpayers supplement their workers’ low wages. Wouldn’t a far more humane way to cut SNAP funding be the payment of a living wage to workers?
While the right preaches the wonders of unrestrained capitalism, they fail to point out the failings that capitalism presents. While capitalism serves as an efficient economic system, its very design is not a fair distribution of wealth. It is designed to funnel most of the wealth of a society to a very few at the top. There will be a layer of professionals and shop keepers below this. Most people will end up at the bottom with just enough to get by. Sound familiar? This is where we are now heading.
A high income tax rate on the income of the rich is one of the ways that a middle class is created. Rather than pay all those high taxes, the wealthy reinvest in their businesses. Lower taxes on the rich doesn’t make the wealthy “job creators.” It means they have more money to gamble on the stock markets creating “bubbles” in the markets. Rather than companies investing in their business, they buy back their own stock and sit on a great deal of cash. Corporations are now keeping between one and two trillion dollars out of our economy.
The right is always harping on the need for deregulation, but because capitalism is a “predatory” economic system in which greed is a primary motivator, good regulation is necessary. While Mitt Romney talked about the poor as being the “takers”, it is the rich and the corporations who take from the poor in the form of low wages, use our air and water as garbage dumps to increase profit, and destroy our democracy with massive political contributions.
Unions are another target of right wing attacks. The Unions played a central role in the creation of the middle class. Unions give the individual worker a voice in the workplace. While the bosses can ignore the individual worker, unions give workers a platform from which to speak. Most of the benefits that workers have today are the results of union actions. If you are lucky enough to have sick days or vacation time, you can thank unions. Today as the labor movement has become greatly weakened, we have seen a subsequent loss of wages and benefits for workers.
Finally, I would point out that the right’s attacks on public education and funding for public colleges and universities is another attack on the middle class. Education is a tool that has been used by people to better their position in life. The underfunding of public education in this country is a serious concern. Public monies to support profit making corporations that provide educational “services” takes money from the public schools. The G.I. Bill which sent countless thousands of returning veterans to college was a stimulus to middle class growth in the 1950’s. Students use to be able to work their way through public universities. Now even they are becoming out of reach for a middle class family.
If you vote Republican, then you are supporting a continued attack on those who are not at the top of the economic ladder. If you are not at the top, you will be voting against your family’s best interest. It is unfortunate that there are too many on the other side of the isle who have been complicit in these attacks on the middle class and the poor. Don’t listen to what the politicians say, find out how they vote. Vote in a way that helps promote what the Constitution says is the “general welfare.” That means all of us.