What happened?

Thirty years ago Ronald Reagan set out to destroy the middle class. He didn't act alone of course. It actually took 30 years of Supply Side economics, and some truly screwed up ideas about trade policy, unions, wages, cheap credit, taxes, and the governments role in regulating business, to bring the middle class to it's knees.

Real wages have been falling or stagnate since 1973. Union participation is at an all time low. Trade policy, pushed by Democrats, led to good paying jobs being outsourced to 3rd world countries, and outsourced again in a race to the bottom.

What about wages and the average working person in America? Shouldn't it be the goal of our government to create a business environment that leads to prosperity for all its citizens? You would think so, but in fact, for the last 30 years government policy has favored corporate America and the wealthy.....deregulation, tax breaks for outsourcing jobs, tax cuts and loop holes......In fact, Greenspan was very concerned about "wage inflation"......Imagine that...he was concerned that after all those years working hard, and earning a good union wage at the local mill, and then seeing your job go sailing off to China, you might earn to much working at McDonald's.

Ah, but Greenspan had a plan. When wages dried up the party didn't have to end! .....cheap credit! Credit cards became so easy to get my dog had one. Home equity loans could be used to buy all those toys we desired. Who needed wages (or a job for that matter) when we had cheap credit? The first words out of George Bush's mouth after the 9-11 attacks where "go shopping".

I'm not an economist but this makes sense to me.....our economy is fueled by demand, not supply....and people with money in their pockets have a greater demand for goods and products than people with no money in their pockets. All the cheap crap being manufactured in China, and sold at WalMart, is wasted on a financially tapped out society.

For many of us our wages have been falling since Carter was President. For most of us our credit is tapped out....there is no more.

If we are going to restore the middle class in America we need a major change in direction. First, we need to invest in clean energy, and rebuilding our neglected infrastructure, that will lead to millions of new jobs.... second, we need to enact the Employee Free Choice Act so workers can unionize and earn better wages....third, we need to give tax breaks to those companies that stay here in America.....fourth, we need universal health care....fifth, we need a major investment in education from K-college.

I have been talking a lot lately about writing a new story...it is our time. How will we write that story? What kind of America will we leave our kids?