Katrina vanden Heuvel: One Simple Question

One Simple Question
posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel on 06/13/2008 @ 9:23pm



It started with one simple question posed by Senator Bernie Sanders to his constituents in an invitation to a town meeting: what does the decline of the middle class mean to you personally?

Over 700 people replied.

A second question was asked in his e-newsletter, The Bernie Buzz: do you have a story to tell about how gas prices are affecting you?

Over 1200 responses.

"The volume of responses was stunning," Sanders told me. "Most people in my state – especially in rural areas – do not feel comfortable telling people about their struggles. ‘He has it worse than I do, I'll be fine. Thanks for asking.' It's just not a natural thing …. The other point that has to be underlined – this is not an interview at the homeless shelter. These are letters from working families, from middle class families… people who've worked their whole lives who expected to have a minimal degree of economic security but are now finding themselves with nothing."

Here are some excerpts from the letters:

A mother and father in rural Vermont: "Due to increasing fuel prices we have at times had to choose between baby food/diapers and heating fuel. We've run out of heating fuel three times…. The baby has ended up in the hospital with pneumonia two of the times."

A man in north central Vermont: "As bad as our situation is, I know many in worse shape. We try to donate food when we do our weekly shopping but now we are not able to even afford to help our neighbors eat. What has this country come to?"

A mother: "By February we ran out of wood and I burned my mother's dining furniture. I have no oil for hot water…. We are certainly a country in distress."

A 55 year old man: "I have worked since age 16. I don't live paycheck to paycheck, I live day to day…. I can see myself working until the day I die…. I work 12 to 14 hours daily and it just doesn't help…. I am just tired, the harder that I work, the harder it gets."

A man in a small town: "I have what I used to consider a decent job, I work hard, pinch my pennies, but the pennies have all but dried up…. I began selling off my woodworking tools, snowblower (pennies on the dollar), and furniture that had been handed down in my family from the early 1800s, just to keep the heat on. Today I am sad, broken, and very discouraged." ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.thenation.com/blogs/edcut/329713

fake smiles and fake assurances... So, freaking sad... Vermonters are some of the hardiest people in this country. Its my life blood.. Its my home in my heart always. People always struggled there, but this is bad, and the boob tube can only talk about Timmy.. God my eyes want to cry reading these letter excerpts. Its time to over throw this guvmint.. who cares little for any of us.

"We know that there is enormous pressure on Obama to be looking to the corporate wing of the Democratic party rather than the progressive wing of the Democratic party. The only way we can move this country in a progressive way is with an agenda supported by the grassroots…."

"I mean, the degree to which we are becoming a second-rate economic power, that our healthcare system is disintegrating, that we have a $9 trillion national debt, that we have the highest rate of childhood poverty – people understand all of these things, and they are wondering what is going on in the country that they grew up in?"

"I want people not to get depressed, and not to become cynical," he says. "This is not Utopian dreaming, we can do these things. We have the resources. It's simply investing where we're not investing. The problems we're facing in this country are, in fact, solvable."

"We're currently playing with pennies to address healthcare, the elderly, tuition costs, Head Start. And down the hallway you've got the guys from the Defense Appropriations bill, who are spending money hand-over-fist in the most unaccountable ways. We have the potential to transform America. We have to change our priorities."

:thumbsup: :thumbsup: We need more dems like Sanders!

k&r

This nation is experiencing situations like those from the Great Depression, but unlike that time, there seems to be little desire to make the fundamental changes that are called for.

When I hear the politicians talk about giving training to unemployed workers who have been affected by the off shoring of our jobs I have to laugh! I have an MBA. Just passed a typing test with 65 wpm and also did the 2007 MS suite tests with flying colors and I still cannot find a job that pays more then around $8 an hour in my part of Florida where I am moving from soon. One thing I have noticed lately is all the temp agencies that are even offering jobs for the State of Florida now. None of the retirement programs or good benefits that used to come with these jobs. No good starting pay either!

My girlfriend just made a snide remark to me that the reason her expenses were going up was because so many people were giving up their homes - right - like I want to do that - Hell no I don't want to - I have to! Of course, when she filed bankruptcy 10 years ago it was a hell of a lot easier to so too.

Another reason for our hard times was the fact that I had a 38 yr-old son who developed progressive MS a few years ago and we used our savings mainly on keeping him going. There was NO help for us or him because he had no insurance and no minor children! Being close to retirement age this time in my life is going to be another rough road ahead. I thought it would get a little easier, but they can't say I didn't try!