Excerpted from Thom Hartmann's newest book, Screwed; The Undeclared War Against the Middle Class -- And What We Can Do About It
You can't be middle class if you earn the minimum wage in America today.
The American dream and the American reality have collided. In America we have always said that if you work hard and play by the rules, you can take care of yourself and your family. But the minimum wage is just $5.15 per hour. With a forty-- hour workweek, that comes to a gross income of $9,888 per year. Nobody can support a family, own a home, buy health insurance, or retire decently on $9,888 per year!
What's more, 30 million Americans-- one in four U.S. workers-- make less than $9 per hour, or just $17,280 a year. That's not a living wage either.
The U.S. Census Bureau's statistics for 2004 show the official poverty rate at 12.7 percent of the population, which put the number of people officially living in poverty in the United States at 37 million. For a family of four, the poverty threshold was listed as $19,307. If the head of that family of four were a single mother working full-- time for the government-- mandated minimum wage, she couldn't even rise above the government's own definition of poverty.
Becoming middle class in America today is like scaling a cliff. Most middle-- class Americans are clinging to the edge with their fingernails, trying not to fall. In the 1950s middle-- class families could live comfortably if just one parent worked. Today more than 60 percent of mothers with children under six are in the workforce. Not only do both parents work but often at least one of those parents works two or more jobs.
Middle Class at Eighty Hours per Week In a 2005 article in the Chicago Tribune, reporters Stephen Franklin and Barbara Rose introduce us to Muyiwa Jaiyeola. Jaiyeola, who is thirty-- three years old, works a forty-- hour week as a salesman at a Sears store, then works another twenty hours in the stockroom of a Gap store in downtown Chicago. When Jaiyeola pulled two all-- night shifts at his stockroom job in late August, he was able to sleep only two hours in the afternoon, then two more in the morning before going back to his sales job. He hoped to nap during his break in the middle of the night.
Jaiyeola is not hoping to get rich-- he's just trying to pay his bills. Working two jobs at this wage level is what it takes to be middle class these days. And he's not alone. According to Franklin and Rose:
Nearly 7.6 million Americans straddle two or more jobs and must find time to work, sleep and live somewhat contorted lives in a very full 24 hours. According to a 2001 U.S. Labor Department survey, most workplace moonlighters do it because they want or need extra money to pay bills . . . Those who specifically need the extra work to pay bills are most often women who take care of their families, and divorced, widowed or separated workers.
For a quarter of the American workforce, not only is the American dream not a reality, no part of it is.
Low wages are being paid not only to entry-- level workers at places like Wal-- Mart and McDonald's but also to adults like Jaiyeola who have work experience. The people being forced to work two jobs to make a living are the heartbeat of our society. They are child-- care workers and nursing-- home workers, janitors and security guards, salespeople and stockers. They often have the most hazardous jobs, the late-- night jobs-- the jobs that rarely include benefits.
Americans have traditionally believed in an economy where those who make a contribution are rewarded. A man like Jaiyeola should be able to work eight hours at Sears and then go home.
Low Prices, Low Paycheck Cons argue that we have to choose between having high wages and having low prices. They are wrong.
Take the case of Wal-- Mart. According to the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW), Wal-- Mart could pay each employee a dollar more per hour if the company increased its prices by a half penny per dollar. For example, a $2 pair of socks would then cost $2.01. This minimal increase would add up to $1,800 annually for each employee.
I wouldn't mind paying more for a pair of socks if it meant that my fellow Americans would be able to pay for good health care. That would save me money because right now Wal-- Mart‘s uninsured employees run up hundreds of thousands of dollars in bills at emergency treatment centers when their problems often could have been solved more cheaply and with better results had they been caught earlier at a doctor's office.
And I wouldn't mind paying one cent more for a pair of socks if it meant that parents could be home at night and on the weekends spending quality time with their kids. That's a real family value.
Here's what all this talk about wages really comes down to: would you rather pay 10 percent more at Wal-- Mart and get 30 percent more in your paycheck, or would you rather have lower prices and an even lower paycheck? That's the real choice: we‘re either spiraling up into a strong middle class, or we‘re spiraling down toward serfdom.
Looking at the arc of U.S. history, we discover we've been on a downward spiral ever since Ronald Reagan declared war on working people in 1981. Companies cut prices and then cut wages so they can still turn a hefty profit. Folks whose wages have been cut can't afford to shop at midrange stores like Macy's, so they have to buy at "low-- wage" discount stores like Wal-- Mart. That drives more midrange stores out of business and increases pressure on discount stores to send their prices even lower. To compensate for lower prices, they lower wages so they can still turn a hefty profit. On and on it goes-- until the people working those jobs are no longer middle class and have to work two or three jobs to survive.
Thank you, Mr. Hartmann, both for this article and for your new slot on AAR KQAK. I occassionally got your show on KSAC when working up north but now, as a Bay Area resident, I can listen every day.
I noted the Santa Fe New Mexico statistics some few months earlier, in a debate regarding the raising of the minimum wage and its supposed effect on the economy, and was slammed by neocons as "opening the door to a flood of illegal workers", something that is simply untrue in this case.
This attack on the middle class has been going on for some time now, and with good reason. A thriving middle class is a bastion of democracy and liberty, something that is anathema to the corporatists that control this nations economy ( and foreign policy as well).
I know you to be a "Jeffersonian Democrat" and very aware of the cyclic nature of the battle between those like Jefferson (Populists) and the Corporatists ( today I guess they'd be Neoconservatives). I know that you understand fully the inherent dangers to our way of life in this battle.
Thank you for bringing such reason and passion to our fight. I trust you will not be a stranger to these pages.
by
ardee D. (6 articles, 4 quicklinks, 1 diaries, 2377 comments)
on Sunday, November 19, 2006 at 9:36:46 AM
Thanks, Thom, all the more reason for even higher visibility for strikes like the current one, in Houston, at Chevron corporate offices, for higher wages. The union busting formerly known as Reaganomics has to stop, as must the politics of privilege, and those of us who were elated at a Democratic victory, on November 7th, must hold their feet to the coals where raising the minimum wage, and health care. We must also demand legislation to protect workers who decide to strike from harassment, and firing by their employees, under new "wrongful termination" laws. This president has given us a whole bunch of legislation that speaks to fear, and vengeance, nothing to address hope, and promise. It's time to change that, and fast, before America joins the ranks of other third world countries.
by
Jayne Lyn Stahl (183 articles, 1 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 67 comments)
on Sunday, November 19, 2006 at 12:28:04 PM
long Saturday night, sorry.... obviously, I meant "We must protect workers who decide to strike from firing by the employers, not their employees....
thanks, once again, Thom, for bringing much needed verve and focus to a crucially important issue
by
Jayne Lyn Stahl (183 articles, 1 quicklinks, 7 diaries, 67 comments)
on Sunday, November 19, 2006 at 12:30:04 PM
I would like to add my thanks for your article, and for all of your efforts to inform Americans of the real state of affairs in the United States. We need you and people lke you to continue to inform, educate and stimulate the public consciousness.
Unfortunately, education is a two way street. It is impossible to inform those who wish to remain uninformed,
or to educate those who prefer to believe that the American dream is still alive and well, albeit not right in their own backyard.
The sad truth is that many of America's middle class never read a newspaper or use the Internet for anything other than viewing porn or learning the name of Paris Hilton's latest beau. Their "news" comes from local television stations that focus on entertainment value rather than information and sound bytes rather than actual stories.
The most popular night-time newscast in the Portland, Oregon area, for example, covers no national or international news, and spends more time on weather and sports than on all other issues combined. And Portland is not in the least atypical of medium sized cities across the US. In fact, we boast one of the country's most politically active and knowledgeable liberal communities. Both medical marijuana and assisted suicide laws were passed in Oregon over the past decade, due almost entirely to the Portland press.
The fact is, however, that the media is going to give the public what it wants. And what the public aparently wants is fluff. Fluff allows America to live in the past, when the promise of the American dream was still a reality for many. My father worked two jobs when he and my mom were first starting out, but he did so to in order to reach a goal ...building a better life for him and his family. Today,
many Americans work two or even three jobs simply to survive. Nevertheless, middle-class America continues to swear undying allegiance to a promise that no longer exists.
I believe wholeheartedly that the people of the United States, have the ability to change the economic, political and moral tide in this country. We made a valiant-if doomed- attempt to do so on November 7th, 2006, a fact which should afford us all a small bit of hope. Nonetheless, it is a given that we will never effect long-term meaningful change in the quality of life for the poor and middle class (a distinction which is disappearing faster than many realize) within the context of our hopelessly bloated, incestuous and corrupt political system. To quote Albert Einstein, "One cannot solve a problem at the same level of consciousness in which it was created." The changes we need will only happen when America wakes up and takes back its power from the opportunistic thugs who stole it right from under our noses.
To do that, we must first understand what happened to the American dream, where it went-and most important how we let it get away.
As we all know, you can only lead the proverbial horse to "water"...you cannot make him open a newspaper or read a blog or (heaven forbid!) a book. But if there is enough "water" around, and especially if it is high quality, readily understandable, meaningful to those it is intended to reach, and free, perhaps a few more will make the effort.
Keep up the excellent work. We need you.
by
KatyClo (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments)
on Sunday, November 19, 2006 at 3:22:46 PM
I also very much appreciate your article, your book, and just knowing that you exist.
I was shocked, (not in criticism, but just by association), when you defined any parent/child interaction as a 'family value' common in America. (similar to practicing a Religion, or watching a 'Football game')
If anything, I see 'abuse' as a symptom of 'neglect', except abuse can be survived. This is not the case with neglect. Consequently, abuse, and/or a desire to be abused, or the eliciting of abuse by children from parents , may be in the service of trying to survive...which in turn, makes it totally ridiculous to try and prevent, or treat. (and which is hardly worth investing so much money in, as it's a waste, like most other use of spending our money) In this regard, no amount of money we spend our taxes on is worth it. In Europe, taxes are much higher than they are here, but at least you get everything for what you pay for. (Healthcare, free Universities, etc, etc) Here, you pay a little less taxes, but you get absolutely nothing for it. The money may be much better off in one's own pocket.
by
Katrin R. (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 514 comments)
on Wednesday, November 22, 2006 at 2:25:36 AM
Katrin,
This comment makes no sense to me and I would like you to explain a bit more, if you are so nclined. Are you claiming that child neglect causes children to act in ways that result in parental abuse-that children somehow provoke abuse as a means of getting their parent's attention? And are you also implying that this is actually a good thing, because once these neglectful parents receive the child's "wake-up call" they may become abusive, but at least they begin to notice the fact that the child exists?
It sure sounds like it, though for the sake of your kids and all that is moral in life I hope not.
I don't want to go on with this post until you have the opportunity to clarify your opinions a bit, including why you believe that neither of these crimes are important enough to warrant either attention or prosecution.
I look forward to hearing from you.
by
KatyClo (0 articles, 0 quicklinks, 0 diaries, 5 comments)
on Friday, November 24, 2006 at 3:24:32 PM
and I also appreciate your asking me to clarify, because I agree with you, that my comment is not clear, and I have been somewhat disturbed about this. Your request gives me a chance to explain, and I am sure you are not the only one who is confused. I make that mistake rather often, of assuming people understand what I mean, and when they don't. I have also improved, and am more aware of this problem.
I think that the word abuse is generally very misunderstood, and even more so, mishandled. (especially by therapists, and who often focus too much on issues of abuse because they do not understand neglect, and because neglect is difficult to talk about.) Why? Because it is an absence of something. It is also something that often begins in the pre-verbal stage of development. It is difficult to pinpoint, and it is not visible.
When people read in the newspaper, that a mother drowned her three kids in the bathtub, they think, (and are told), that this is an example of horrible abuse. This is not abuse, it is a tragedy.
People also tend to think, that an abuser is a 'bad person', and that the victim is a 'good person'. In fact, in most cases, the victim and the abuser are the same person. (If not at the same time, necessarily)
People generally think that it is the victim, that needs all the help, when in fact, the abuser really needs a lot more help.
As far as agencies like CSD (Children's Services Division) are concerned, a kid has to be 'bleeding' in order to get help. (or show outside evidence) The 'bleeding kid' to them is the worst case, when in fact, that kid may be the lucky one. first, because this kid gets help, but also, because this kid knows who the enemy is. This kid is often more able to distinguish between the perpetrator, and him/herself. As you probably realize, most kids blame themselves for childhood abuse, and/or they act it out, because they do not understand it..they have no comparison, or guidelines as to what is normal behavior.
I just read yesterday an article, about how 'Borderline Personality Disorder' has become close to an epidemic. And you know how 'hated' this diagnosis is, and pretty much believed to be untreatable. It's a diagnosis all therapists dread and avoid in a patient. Why? Because they don't know how to treat it, and also because it is more than anything caused by parental neglect.
When this person gets going in therapy, they often become unbearable, because they cannot handle the attention. When you give a lot of attention to a person who was neglected, they 'lose it'. They suffer so much. They want it so badly, but they cannot handle the attention. When they become more difficult, then the therapist withdraws, and it's all a vicious cycle...usually, until they are dumped, and blamed for all of this.
With two parents working full time, and some parents work two jobs, children today suffer more and more from parental neglect. It is not only the time that is not spent with children while parents are working, but when the parents come home from work, they have to clean, and do bills, and they are stressed, and they have to shop and cook, that the kids are practically on their own. More so, the parents are irritable and tired, and they are much more in danger of becoming abusive towards their kids, when they want attention. And yes, I do believe, that kids sometimes elicit abuse from their parents, just to survive. Why? Because the 'good kid' will get absolutely no attention, and in addition to that he/she will be hated and abused by a sibling, who feels the parents prefer him/her. Or, the kids let it out on other kids, or a dog, or whatever. The parents do not mean to be abusive, and to neglect their kids...and often, they aren't even conscious of this at all, but they do, and this hurts not only the parents, but of course the kids terribly. (and I am assuming, that almost all parents know when they are not getting it right, and it hurts them as well)
I cannot get into all of this, but this was what I was trying to say in my earlier comment.
For kids to be parented, and for them to get attention, is not a matter of a luxury. And a parent who works, and raises children...that does not make her super-woman. The kids suffer, and they are not cared for. They don't get what they need, and you cannot make up for this by giving them more toys, and electronics.
Attention, and time spent with kids, is not a matter of 'family values', it is a basic need.
The reality, and which this author discusses in detail, is a very severe state of affairs.
Middle class kids these days are no better off than Kids from low class families, and especially since they do not qualify for any federal state, and federal support, because their income is just a bit too high.
No, it's not OK! It's terrible! But the answer is not in punishing! First, the situation deserves to be recognized. And by that I do not mean labeling all these problem kids as 'mentally ill', and putting them on meds.
The problem is so severe, and so complex.....it's far removed from being a matter of 'family values'.
I do not have time to edit this, because I need to care for my kids now.
Thanks again, Katrin
by
Katrin R. (3 articles, 0 quicklinks, 11 diaries, 514 comments)
on Friday, November 24, 2006 at 11:37:10 PM
8 comments
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