The fine line between
rich and poor has been progressively widening in recent years to the point that
it would take an Olympic long-jumper to clear that line. Now, “poor” can have multiple definitions
depending on the person describing the situation. The notorious “1%” might argue that “poor”
means not being able to maintain gasoline and insurance costs on each of their
sports cars as well as the very practical SUV used for taking Junior to soccer
practice. Never mind that the SUV in
question is an Escalade. Junior has the
right to such luxuries and shouldn’t be deprived. After all, what would the Hampton neighbors
say?
That, of course, is a
definition not likely held by, well, 99% of the U.S. population. It is that very fact which underlines the point
I wish to make: middle and lower class American citizens are struggling ever
harder to make monthly ends meet, and that struggle shows no sign of lessening
anytime soon. There truly seems to be an
oligarchy of the Corporate 1% pulling strings and controlling cash flow within
this country that keeps the majority of us gasping for fiscal air. When profits lag, jobs are outsourced to
other companies. No health insurance
required for those workers. And then
there’s the tax write-offs those same companies get for transferring employment
overseas. So what if they had to cut a
thousand American jobs. Their bottom
line becomes ever more solid as the unemployment line becomes ever longer.
I read an article on
CNN.com a couple of weeks ago in which an economic expert announced that the
United States is about to re-achieve the same number of jobs it had in
2008. Sounds fantastic, doesn’t it? We as a country will have finally returned to
a relative place of prosperity where the markets will expand, paychecks will
increase, and spending for the masses may once more reach a healthy level. But wait: five years have passed since
2008. How many high school and college
graduates have flooded the job market during that time? According to the article I read, approximately
15 million new graduates have begun looking for jobs between 2008 and
2014. So, the jobs lost during the
severe economic downturn six years ago have been replaced, but dramatically
larger numbers of people are in need of jobs that didn’t even exist in
2008.
I have a
Bachelor’s degree as well as eighteen years of work experience as an
administrative/executive assistant and still lost my job in June of 2008. I searched for six months before running
out of money, losing my apartment, and having to move in with relatives in my
hometown. I took whatever job I
could find and am now making $10,000 less per year than I had been
making. I won’t be moving out on my
own again for some time. Even with my
education and experience, employers don’t want to pay me a living wage. Why?
Because they don’t have to. The
market is flooded with prospective employees.
It’s an employer’s market, and as a result, they—Corporate America—set
the wage levels wherever they care to.
I'm totally middle cass, and I'm struggling. So what about
the truly poor in this country? What
about the under-educated and under-experienced?
How will they survive until and unless the economy improves
dramatically? Yes, there has been some
recovery within the last year or two, but we’re a long, long way from w here we
need to be for a financially healthy society.
For now, I’m afraid the poor will continue to become poorer, the middle
class will sink ever lower, and the rich?
Well, my guess is that the rich will continue becoming richer at the
expense of those who worked hard to put them where they are.
