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A Closer Look: Economically-divided America
By TERRY MAXWELL/Range News
While President George W. Bush and Senator John Kerry are attacking each other and distorting each other's political position, the income gap between the affluent and the middle class and the poor continues to grow.
The past two decades have been a battleground between the rich and the economically-challenged. The richest Americans have dramatically increased their net worth through record-setting prosperity in the 1990s, a runaway stock market and Bush's tax breaks for the rich.
Currently, those of us at the middle and lower end of the income scale are buying less with our dollars, suffering from the worst employment numbers since the Great Depression and to add insult to injury, our skilled and unskilled jobs are being shipped to other countries where labor is less costly.
The growing disparity is more pronounced in this dampened economy. Wages are for the most part stagnant and the middle class and the poor are being forced to pay increasing real estate taxes, runaway gas prices, high-priced health care, rising food costs, and escalating housing costs with lower wages.
If you live in states like Arizona, Ohio, and Michigan, for example, and are unemployed, with no health insurance, a big mortgage to pay, and a family to feed, Bush's politically-inspired words, "We have turned the corner," are misleading, almost insulting.
The U. S. Census Bureau reported in 1973 that the wealthiest 20 percent of American families had 44 percent of the country's income. Not surprisingly, the percentage jumped to 50 percent in 2002, while the rest of American's income fell.
Jobs and a faltering economy are the major concern of the American people this election year. Polls show that Senator John Kerry is considered more likely to pull America out of its economic problems.
Throughout America, the words "two Americas" is getting louder as the economically-stressed middle class and underprivileged are on one side of the economic divide and the opulent on the other.
One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to realize what side Bush and Cheney are on in this economically- and politically-divided nation.
Many non-governmental affiliated economists support this assessment of the current economic divide in America.
"For those working in the bottom half of the pay scale, they are under an enormous amount of pressure," said Mark Zandl, chief economist at economy.com.
One only has to take a drive through Cochise County to observe the pockets of wrenching poverty that can drain the spirit of children and their parents. If we open our eyes, the harsh reality breaks through that there are two Americas - one for the rich and influential and one for the struggling middle class and the indigent.
Economists are pointing out that Bush's tax cuts have shifted the overall tax burden to the middle class and away from the wealthy and privileged.
The job market in America has softened during the Bush presidency. During the past month, hiring was at a virtual standstill with only 32,000 new jobs. Economists were stunned and the Bush administration was dismayed, because about 200,000 new jobs were predicted. Evidently, the public and business community don't agree with Bush that we "turned the corner."
Of 2.6 million jobs lost during the Bush presidency, over one million have been added back into the work force. However, a closer look shows that most of the jobs pay less and offer fewer benefits. Most of the new jobs are in health care services, food services and part-time positions.
Unfortunately, the economic elite Bush Republicans and the affluent Kerry Democrats, including America's millionaire senators in Washington D.C, are physically and economically removed from the rest of us that are struggling to pay our day-to-day bills.
Paradoxically, millions of Americans do not have health insurance, while billions and billions of dollars have been appropriated to fight an Iraqi war that didn't have to happen in first place,
Bush's rationale to attack Iraq was found to be faulty and misleading. No weapons of mass destruction were found, which took away Bush's main reason to strike Iraq. As a consequence, the growing federal debt poses a major threat to the quality of life of all working class Americans in Arizona and throughout the nation.
(Editor's Note: Terry Maxwell can be reached by e-mail at terryMaxwell@m33access.com.)
The past two decades have been a battleground between the rich and the economically-challenged. The richest Americans have dramatically increased their net worth through record-setting prosperity in the 1990s, a runaway stock market and Bush's tax breaks for the rich.
Currently, those of us at the middle and lower end of the income scale are buying less with our dollars, suffering from the worst employment numbers since the Great Depression and to add insult to injury, our skilled and unskilled jobs are being shipped to other countries where labor is less costly.
The growing disparity is more pronounced in this dampened economy. Wages are for the most part stagnant and the middle class and the poor are being forced to pay increasing real estate taxes, runaway gas prices, high-priced health care, rising food costs, and escalating housing costs with lower wages.
If you live in states like Arizona, Ohio, and Michigan, for example, and are unemployed, with no health insurance, a big mortgage to pay, and a family to feed, Bush's politically-inspired words, "We have turned the corner," are misleading, almost insulting.
The U. S. Census Bureau reported in 1973 that the wealthiest 20 percent of American families had 44 percent of the country's income. Not surprisingly, the percentage jumped to 50 percent in 2002, while the rest of American's income fell.
Jobs and a faltering economy are the major concern of the American people this election year. Polls show that Senator John Kerry is considered more likely to pull America out of its economic problems.
Throughout America, the words "two Americas" is getting louder as the economically-stressed middle class and underprivileged are on one side of the economic divide and the opulent on the other.
One doesn't have to be a rocket scientist to realize what side Bush and Cheney are on in this economically- and politically-divided nation.
Many non-governmental affiliated economists support this assessment of the current economic divide in America.
"For those working in the bottom half of the pay scale, they are under an enormous amount of pressure," said Mark Zandl, chief economist at economy.com.
One only has to take a drive through Cochise County to observe the pockets of wrenching poverty that can drain the spirit of children and their parents. If we open our eyes, the harsh reality breaks through that there are two Americas - one for the rich and influential and one for the struggling middle class and the indigent.
Economists are pointing out that Bush's tax cuts have shifted the overall tax burden to the middle class and away from the wealthy and privileged.
The job market in America has softened during the Bush presidency. During the past month, hiring was at a virtual standstill with only 32,000 new jobs. Economists were stunned and the Bush administration was dismayed, because about 200,000 new jobs were predicted. Evidently, the public and business community don't agree with Bush that we "turned the corner."
Of 2.6 million jobs lost during the Bush presidency, over one million have been added back into the work force. However, a closer look shows that most of the jobs pay less and offer fewer benefits. Most of the new jobs are in health care services, food services and part-time positions.
Unfortunately, the economic elite Bush Republicans and the affluent Kerry Democrats, including America's millionaire senators in Washington D.C, are physically and economically removed from the rest of us that are struggling to pay our day-to-day bills.
Paradoxically, millions of Americans do not have health insurance, while billions and billions of dollars have been appropriated to fight an Iraqi war that didn't have to happen in first place,
Bush's rationale to attack Iraq was found to be faulty and misleading. No weapons of mass destruction were found, which took away Bush's main reason to strike Iraq. As a consequence, the growing federal debt poses a major threat to the quality of life of all working class Americans in Arizona and throughout the nation.
(Editor's Note: Terry Maxwell can be reached by e-mail at terryMaxwell@m33access.com.)
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