In a shameful testament to the avarice and cruelty of the United States' socioeconomic system, impoverished families of four "raking in" less than $18,000 a year (and even "low income" families earning up to $36,000.00) suffer needlessly in the wealthiest nation in the history of humankind. According to studies by America's Second Harvest, 36% of families seeking food from their relief pantries included at least one working adult. 32% of those seeking help from Second Harvest faced the cruel choice between buying food and obtaining medical care. Second Harvest also found that in 2002, 25% of low income families with a member working full time experienced food and shelter insecurity. The United States Conference of Mayors did a study which determined that 40% of people requesting emergency hunger relief were employed.
From 2004 to 2005, the number of US Americans without health insurance climbed from 45.3 to 46.6 million. One of every six US Americans faces the most expensive health care system in the world (both per capita and as a percentage of GDP) without the safety net of insurance. A shamefully low 60% of US workers receive coverage from their employers. Lamentably, over 11% of children in the United States have no health insurance.
To add some perspective, the 46.6 million uninsured are or represent:
Over 12 times the number of millionaires (3.8 million) in the United States
Almost equal to all Americans age 65 and older (35.9 million)
12 million more than the population of Canada (32.2 million)
Nearly 7,500 uninsured Americans for each hospital in America
Over 84,000 uninsured Americans for each Member of Congress
(Thanks to the Center for American Progress for the above information)
Increasingly empty wallets and hunger pangs are painful reminders that corporate America has shredded the social contract with the working class in the United States. Organized labor struggled for over a century to pry job security, fair wages, and benefits from the greedily clenched fists of the bourgeoisie. Ronald Reagan initiated an assault on unions that has virtually erased over a hundred years of progress in less than a third of that time. Employing tactics which are extremely averse to the working class, pathologically acquisitive multi-national corporations have taken their quest for global domination to new heights with disastrous results for human beings around the world.
Thanks to the zealous efforts of moneyed interests, a growing number of people in the United States are exchanging their blood, sweat and tears for slave wages. Forget the American Dream of picturesque homes in quiet suburbia, the annual rite of experiencing the "new car smell", 1.5 healthy children, college educations for everyone willing to work hard, and a "happily ever after" existence. Over ten million US Americans are engaged in a struggle for their very survival. Their American Nightmares include periods of homelessness, food pantries, soup kitchens, the isolation of urban ghettos, and choosing medicine for baby over dinner. And these are the working poor of the United States of America.
So the next time Bush crows about an unemployment rate of 4.7%, remember that an additional 10% of the US population is working and wanting for basic human needs.
And when Bush boasts of the "robust economy", why doesn't someone scream at him that the fruits of this "robustness" are being devoured by a relative few? The 30 million working poor, 16 million unemployed, and 46 million uninsured obviously aren't accessing the cornucopia.
So what of the rest of the working class?
According to an Economic Policy Institute study:
"Wages stopped rising and actually began losing ground starting in 2001, despite continued growth in productivity and corporate profits, according to an analysis of government data in 'The State of Working America: 2006/2007'"
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