Laura Flanders: To Truly Address Inequality, Let's Build a People-Centered Economy

from YES! Magazine:


To Truly Address Inequality, Let's Build a People-Centered Economy
The high-tech hubs and natural gas drilling the president called for in his state of the union speech aren't the answer to our economic woes. Instead, we need to follow the leadership already coming from communities, workers, and small-business owners.

by Laura Flanders
posted Jan 30, 2014


President Obama got one thing right in his State of the Union address. "It is (we) the citizens who make the state of our union strong."

Just look at his speech. After years of saying the word "poverty" fewer times than any president in memory (and talking about the middle class more), here was Obama talking about inequality and workers stifled by low wages. That's thanks to public activism.

"Inequality has deepened"; "No one who works full time should ever have to raise a family in poverty." The president's best applause lines were lifted from protest signs. Now "citizens" (and would-be citizens) will have to come up with solutions too, because his won't take us very far.

Take that minimum wage hike for federal workers. Ten dollars and ten cents an hour is nice, but $20,000 a year is hardly a ticket out of poverty, even if you can find a full-time job in the public sector. The demand on the street, in case the president missed it, has been for $15 an hour, and the right to bargain collectively so workers have some power. (On Twitter that's #Fightfor15 or #raisethewage.) ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.yesmagazine.org/new-economy/to-truly-address-inequality-let-s-build-a-people-centered-economy