This survey, which does not distinguish between sizes of families, nevertheless offers the most detailed look available of the balance sheet of U.S. households. The typical American family;... o) Has about $3,800 in the bank. o) No one has a retirement account, and the neighbors who do only have about $35,000 in theirs. o) Mutual funds? Stocks? Bonds?... Nope. o) The house is worth $160,000, but the family owes $95,000 on it to the bank. o) The breadwinners make more than $43,000 a year but can't manage to pay off a $2,200 credit card balance.For far too many of the world's citizens, globalization has meant more poverty, fewer family-supporting jobs and deeper debt and hopelessness.
Economist Thea Lee, cites three key factors in bringing about the new global strategy by corporatists: 1) A U.S. tax system that grossly favors corporations 2) An overvalued dollar 3) And a pro-corporate global trading system that leaves workers, small farmers, the environment and the poor ever more vulnerable and weak. Writes Lee: "The challenge we face today in the United States is how to engage in the global economy without decimating our own middle class and gutting our social regulatory system. The logic of global capitalism as currently practiced is to drive down workers' wages, weaken their bargaining power and strip away their social protections in both rich and poor countries, while simultaneously encouraging and celebrating the excesses of debt-driven consumerism. (My note: An estimated $900 Billion trade deficit this year)Sherrod Brown writes in his book," Myths of Free Trade":
"In 1960, before globalization, the most affluent 20 percent of the world's population was 30 times richer than the poorest 20 percent. In 1997"the most fortunate were 74 times richer than the poorest." And liberalized trade has certainly not produced on its promises in our country. Real wages for America's workers have been stagnant for 25 years. Free trade and the other elements of neo-liberalism or the Washington consensus may "free" corporations""but not people. It seems simple to me;... Democratic reforms, free elections, democracy itself""require intentional and continual public attention.
Economist John Galbraith writes that what's needed is a "program for growth and justice built on the needs of the working population and the middle class." To begin with, in the United States there must be a powerful demolition of the old political order: We need elections where all votes are cast and counted. The campaign against voter repression is the essential civil rights struggle of our time, even though most progressives don't seem to realize it yet. Prevailing will require fundamental reform such as the introduction of nationwide vote-by-mail (the Oregon system). Without that, and also many relentless prosecutions, nothing else will be achieved.My Note To Our Democratic Leadership; The above analysis paints a bleak picture for the American worker and the American family. This is the result of many "failed" economic and "unfair" trade programs that you have supported in the past. These include: Entrance into the WTO, "Fast Track" trade policy approval for the Administration, NAFTA, free trade with India and China, CAFTA and other corporate centric trade agreements Something must be done about this corporate control of our government and this relentless attack on the American worker or we will be left with a decimated American middle class and millions upon millions of American families living far below the poverty level. This will lead us into a rapid decent into a third world economy. (With the "Haves and Have Mores", Bush's base as he has claimed, being "served" by the poor American and foreign worker.) Please consider the implementation of the following legislation to try to reverse this impending economic crisis. The crisis that is being brought on by the rich and corporate elite who operate with the same greed and disdain for the working man as did the Robber Barons of the 19th Century. 1) Make corporate America pay their fair share of the tax burden. In the 40s they paid 50% of the taxes. Today they pay less than 7%. 2) Stop corporations from moving their corporate headquarters offshore to avoid paying American taxes. 3) Stop giving tax breaks to corporations that outsource American jobs to cheap overseas labor. 4) Give tax breaks to corporations that create American jobs. 5) Secure our borders. 6) Block the Senate's proposed guest worker program. We don't need 200,000 foreign workers brought into the US each year to further depress American wages. And we certainly don't need to make them permanent residents with a path to citizenship. (Per the Heritage Foundation;..The addition of these low skilled workers and their families will increase our population by over 66 million people in the next twenty years) 7) Raise the minimum wage so that the American workers at the lower end of the economic ladder can make a decent living and rise out of poverty. 8) Revise the labor laws to severely penalize corporations that use unethical and illegal methods to break up American unions and union organizing efforts. 9) Pass a equitable single payer heath care program to help American corporations to compete in the Global Economy. 10) Protect American worker pensions and stop any Social Security privatization. 11) Pass legislation to eliminate or minimize the H1B and other work visa programs. 12) Keep the present quotas on the levels of immigration. 13) Increase educational assistance programs to rapidly educate the American workforce. 14) Stop giving Defense and Homeland Security contracts to foreign corporations. (80% of our Defense contracts now go to foreign companies) 15) Rescind the "Fast Track" authorization. 16) Renegotiate "ALL" the trade policies and agreements to stop the corporate exploitation of both the American and foreign worker. These agreements MUST have protections built in to pay a fair wage, prohibit the sweatshop conditions that now prevail for the foreign workers and to set standards for safety and environmental protections. 17) Get the h*** out of the WTO to protect both our national and state sovereignty. References: The CNN Lou Dobbs Tonight Show www.cnn.com/lou Transcript for 04/13/2006 Economists John Gailbrath and Thea Lee and US Senate candidate Sherrod Brown "On The Global Highway To""?" http://blog.aflcio.org/?p=458 "Live from New Deli, former US media jobs " By Tula Connell AFL-CIO Weblog http://blog.aflcio.org Two Washington Post Articles on the typical American family: "Meet the typical American family" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/03/04/ar2006030400238.html?referrer=email "Fed Survey: Average Inflation-Adjusted Family Incomes Drop in 2004" http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/article/2006/02/23/ar2006022300799.html?referrer=emailarticle
