By Robert Reich
Truthdig.com - Jan 27, 2014
People ask me all the time why we don’t have a revolution in America,
or at least a major wave of reform similar to that of the Progressive
Era or the New Deal or the Great Society.
Middle incomes are sinking, the ranks of the poor are swelling,
almost all the economic gains are going to the top, and big money is
corrupting our democracy. So why isn’t there more of a ruckus?
The answer is complex, but three reasons stand out.
First, the working class is paralyzed with fear it will lose the jobs and wages it already has.
In earlier decades, the working class fomented reform. The labor
movement led the charge for a minimum wage, 40-hour workweek,
unemployment insurance, and Social Security.
No longer. Working people don’t dare. The share of working-age
Americans holding jobs is now lower than at any time in the last three
decades and 76 percent of them are living paycheck to paycheck.
Read more....
No comments:
Post a Comment