Job One: Restoring Dignity to the American Working Class
- Print print this page
- Discuss Comment, Blog about
Advertisement
It was becoming annoying - the obsessive attention devoted to the unfolding events in Egypt.
Granted, it is fascinating to watch a nation - a major strategic ally, no less - going through the tumultuous process of being reborn right before our very eyes. But we have pressing issues of our own to focus on.
Then a report from Richard Engel on "The Rachel Maddow Show" brought it all home. Engle said:
"I've been listening to a lot of analysts ... talking about Twitter and Facebook," Engle said. "This didn't have anything to do with Twitter and Facebook. > This had to do with people's dignity, people's pride. >People are not able to feed their families."
There it is in a nutshell - the impetus for all revolutions and lasting political reforms, the struggle for human dignity.
Engel shared a conversation he had had with a man who couldn't make his car payments and who was worried about his children's future. That lament has a familiar ring in the Great Recession and the recovery that still seems a long way from trickling down to working class and unemployed Americans. He went on to mention Egypt's exploding wealth gap and the perception that government has not done very much as prime factors in the uprising.
Closer to home on Jan. 27, The Foundation For Child Development published a study that finds that middle-class children in this country have been falling behind their more privileged peers as the gap between upper and middle class has widened by 50 percent over the past 25 years.
Over that time, middle-class kids have become increasingly reliant on "essential policies and programs that could be -unraveled, depending on key budget decisions." No matter where you live, when you work hard every day and still can't do what's best for your kids, you lose dignity.
The disparity between the top 1 percent of American earners and the rest of us is even wider today than it was just before the Great Depression. Like the deficit, this trend is unsavory, unhealthy and unsustainable.
As we watch working people's pent-up frustration over a corrupt and unresponsive government exploding in Egypt, it is worth considering just how responsive our own government is.
A survey published on Jan. 20 by The Pew Research Center for the People and the Press showed that the top two concerns by far for the American people were the economy, 87 percent, and jobs, 84 percent.
How is the newly minted House of Representatives addressing those concerns? It passed H.R. 2: Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act. If it had passed in the Senate, how many jobs would it have saved? Few, if any, according to FactCheck.Org.
The Affordable Health Care Act was an attempt by government to increase the dignity of working people. The attempt to repeal it was to line the pockets of that top 1 percent. We live in a representative democracy and what it represents is dollars.
There is no evident strategy among the leaders of the new Congress to improve the flagging prospects of middle-class Americans. Republican leadership seems to be focused on deficit reduction (sixth among Americans' top priorities) as a means to stimulate the economy.
But as stated in a blog posted on The Economist website on Tuesday, "Even if there were a plausible argument that unemployment and lethargic growth today stem from the current budget deficit, any impact -congressional leaders hope to see from their spending cuts will add up to no more than noise around the edges of their tax cuts."
Every memorable movement, every revolution in human history from the flight of the Israelites from Egypt to our own civil rights movement, has been an effort by disenfranchised or oppressed people to reclaim their dignity. That's what's overwhelming Egypt's government.
Restoring dignity to the American middle and working classes is the critical challenge before ours.
Kevin Smith lives in Aberdeen. Contact him at kevinasmith@gmx.com.
More like this story
Advertisement
Comments
moonchild7 2 years, 3 months ago
Oh Mr. Smith...you are talking to the wrong crowd around here! They want those who are without or who have problems to just get off their bottoms and work, work, work, it all out of their systems by themselves! Self-reliance is the answer, they constantly say. Government NOT NEEDED for the "little people"; besides, our government lately has been of the rich, for the rich, and by the rich. And "DEFICIT REDUCTION?" That's a CODE word for: Get rid of as many government programs as possible so they can then say; 'WE DON'T HAVE ANY MONEY FOR GOVERNMENT PROGRAMS ANYMORE...HA, HA, HA, YOU"RE ON YOUR OWN LITTLE PEOPLE of AMERICA!"
Zoey 2 years, 3 months ago
Opening a Can of Worms?
JER 2 years, 3 months ago
Zoey, glad you recognise it as the "can of worms" that noshedidnt points out.
JimHeim 2 years, 3 months ago
Great idea! When our troops are wounded, let them find insurance just like the rest of us. Wow, breathtaking!
Easygoing 2 years, 3 months ago
Mr. Smith, your editorial was an interesting take on much of the debate surrounding the social programs instituted by our government. I think you have a good point that we as a nation should be concerned with providing an environment that we all can live with "personal dignity". If that means providing some level of basic health care for its citizens we should all be willing to contribute to that goal. As a country we should be good enough to help each other in this way.
blake 2 years, 3 months ago
Please, the level of health care truly needed by a citizenry and guaranteed by the government is access to clear drinking water and a true safety net for those truly in need for access to good nutrition. What you are asking for is truly an abrogation of any self reliance in one's health.
The vast majority of your health is not dictated by you doctor or in most cases your prescriptions but by your diet and level of exercise. I will be willing to provide your "level of basic health" care when the citizenry shows some "personal dignity" regarding their health. But as soon as an overweight individual makes a purchase of fast food or drinks a regular soda or lights up a cigarette then they are on their own. Agreed?
JER 2 years, 3 months ago
I agree!
JER 2 years, 3 months ago
My "I agree" comment was intended for Easygoings post but it showed up under Blakes post. I will agree with Blake that people who make no effort to keep themselves healthy should be "on their own".
HillTopper 2 years, 3 months ago
Check out the lyrics to Ten Years After's "Tax The Rich, Feed The Poor". Written in 1971. 40 years ago ... same old stuff. Nothing really changes ... hey, that remind's me of a Freddie Mercury song.
dustyrhoades 2 years, 3 months ago
You mean the song "I'd Love to Change the World"?
blake 2 years, 3 months ago
Mr Smith, your arguments make no sense. The Republicans are not trying to stimulate the economy by deficit reduction. But unlike the past 2 years, those 2 goals are not mutually exclusive. You can have both. But wasteful programs will need to be cut; Washington will need to run leaner and cleaner. The healthcare reform law was intended to increase the government control over its population and reduce healthcare costs. It did only one of those.
Easygoing 2 years, 3 months ago
Attention Blake and all citizens: Those who have a child born with a birth defect or could possibly get the following are on their own if they or their family ever ate a fast food hamburger or soda: Heart disease, Cancer:, Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases), Chronic lower respiratory diseases, Accidents (unintentional injuries), Alzheimer's disease, Diabetes, Influenza and Pneumonia, Nephritis or nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis (kidney disease), Septicemia (infections). Theses are the 10 leading causes of deaths per the CDC for 2007. Your depth of compassion for your fellow human beings is staggering. As a country I hope we are better than this.
Matt_Woodruff 2 years, 3 months ago
Accidents (Unintentional injuries) are caused by fast food burgers?
nothingspecial 2 years, 3 months ago
A little correction to your editorial, Mr. Smith, changes the whole message.
Correction 1: No comparison between the stratified society of Egypt where there is little attention to the poor or to opportunity, and our society or that of Israel.
Correction 2: There already was a revolution in this country by little people concerned about jobs and the economy. It was the 2010 election. Now the Republicans have a chance to do something effective or get booted out again too.
HillTopper 2 years, 3 months ago
DR ... yep. Was going from memory.
Ross 2 years, 3 months ago
"There already was a revolution in this country by little people concerned about jobs and the economy"
I truly can't wait until the republicans screw things up "again". I'll bet "glen beck jr." aka james will stop posting and actually take the time to change his diapers.
and "nothingspecial" will find a way to blame the "libs" again.
Ross 2 years, 3 months ago
argghhhhhhhh............just like "cousin eddie" - can't get rid of you!
OldSpook 2 years, 3 months ago
Well said.
nothingspecial 2 years, 3 months ago
Ross, no comparison between James and me, putting us in the same sentence, and you're a fine and witty guy but there's no use trying to best him. Our buddy James makes the comments section twice as entertaining as the articles themselves. His old RV improves the neighborhood as far as I'm concerned.
Ross 2 years, 3 months ago
"my RV will remain parked in his front yard until he admits that I'm right".
I was afraid of that............
JimHeim 2 years, 3 months ago
James, please learn English. If you read my statement it indicated that the intent of voter ID is to discourage African-Americans from voting. That is not the same as saying that is what it would accomplish. It would also disenfranchise poor people in general. Most every action has unintended consequences. My statement allowed for that. I stand by it.
JimHeim 2 years, 3 months ago
Then quote verbatim what I said.
madstork 2 years, 3 months ago
Allow me.
"The move for voter ID has one purpose and one purpose only - to prevent as many black people from voting as possible. All else is window dressing."
Your quote. Seems pretty straight forward to me.
JimHeim 2 years, 3 months ago
That is not the same as saying that the voter ID plan will not affect anyone else as was suggested by madstork. That's quite a different thing. I stand by the statement as being clear and non-contradictory.
nothingspecial 2 years, 3 months ago
Very weak and tired excuses in all the writings I've studied for not having voter ID, especially having to go back to the fall-back argument of racism. That's a desperate strategy, claiming racism.
teufelhunden 2 years, 3 months ago
If a person can buy liquor and ciggys then shouldn't that person have the means to get an ID?
JimHeim 2 years, 3 months ago
I was unaware that buying beer and cigarettes was a requirement for voting. Where did you get your copy of the constitution?
Ross 2 years, 3 months ago
I have to agree with the right wing loonies in this case. Everyone should have some form of ID and what harm is it to simply show it at the voting booth.
Maybe james can show his new "justin bieber" fan club card.
moonchild7 2 years, 3 months ago
Restoring America's Dignity will only take actually a few very simple steps: 1)No more Preemtive(Bush Doctrine)Wars. 2)No more War on Poverty(living wages and benefits must be paid). 3)No more War on Drugs(we need a war on true crimes). 4)No more "For Profit Health Care".
teufelhunden 2 years, 3 months ago
James-you have the best comebacks. You've got style.
JER 2 years, 3 months ago
Style, no question. Substance, not so much. Kind of like the Super Bowl halftime show.
Ross 2 years, 3 months ago
You two need to get a room..........
JER 2 years, 3 months ago
And I have got to say that hat looks like it was just made for you, the way it comes to a point on the top, and all. But seriously, you don't really need to do the Rosetta Stone program to improve your "substance". All that most of us want is for the discussion to be about finding a middle ground that we can all agree is what is best for all Americans. We have all gotten too caught up with the notion that the other side is the enemy. Sitting on opposite hills and taking pot shots at each other solves nothing. Mr. Heim is as wrong about some things as his counterpart in the Republican party is on other things. But each has something that contributes to helping find solutions to our problems.