Jobs, Wealth, and the Growing Income Inequality
Jobs, jobs, jobs – it’s routinely the number one topic we hear out of the mouths of politicians and government officials alike, and for good reason. With an official unemployment rate teetering between 6-8%, and many various independent media sources claiming that actual rates could potentially be much higher (12% or more), unemployment is obviously a serious issue.
What is all too often ignored within the realm of the Washington mainstream is another important figure -- the millions of Americans currently suffering with the consequences of “under-employment”. As the working class knows all too well, not all jobs are created equal. Minimum wage jobs (or those barely above) are not jobs which offer any sort of worthwhile long-term stability for their workers.
Struggling to get by on $8 or $9 an hour with no benefits and no legitimate chance for a meaningful raise leaves Americans stuck in a never-ending cycle of continual poverty. For many Americans, this brings about difficult life-choices. Do I pay my rent, or do I choose to feed my family? And with various nonprofits, such as Feeding America, reporting that 1 in 5 American children are at risk of going hungry on a consistent basis, it’s obvious that there is a severe epidemic in this country, with a direct link to financial inequality.
America can no longer afford to ignore the obvious: America’s working-class are desperately in need of leadership that will stand up for their best interests. Far too often we see America’s leadership side with big-business and multi-billion dollar corporations over the well-being of the hard-working people who give their all to make this country prosper. This is a disgrace of the highest magnitude.
Americans deserve a fair day’s wage for a fair day’s work. They deserve the security of knowing that a safety net exists to back them up in the event that they find themselves out of work for circumstances against their control. No American should ever have to be faced with choosing between providing for their families or paying off their mandatory monthly expenses. This is the richest nation on earth, and the American people deserve their fair share of those “riches”. After all, American workers are the ones who have earned them with their own hard labor.
I envision an America where we put our citizens to work fixing our nation and readying it for a sustainable future. Much like what Franklin D. Roosevelt was able to accomplish with the New Deal legislation of the 1930’s, we are now again at a great crossroads for future society and development.
America needs to focus on rebuilding and reforming our infrastructure in order to ensure future prosperity throughout the 21st century. We should focus our energy and our talents into bettering our education, healthcare, public transportation, sustainable energy solutions, along with many other useful improvements to science and technology. Doing so would not only help America be better ready to deal with the constant-evolving and increasingly technical world of the 21st century, it would also put Americans to work with the basic goal of bettering our nation and themselves.
This isn’t anything revolutionary; it’s merely building toward a vision. American workers have had enough of big-money’s vision of exploitation. It’s time our elected leaders give us a true vision of hope, based not in rhetoric, but in a clear plan of inclusive action.
Let’s put ourselves to work building toward our own future!