I am not sure where I sit in the left/right scale in that I am an aggressive proponent of a strong middle class. And strong means a large, vibrant middle class. Not a portion of the population which is better off then the unemployed. Nor a class employed at wages condemning them to poverty. And not a portion of the population that looks up to the 1% and feels that in comparison they too are being pushed to the brink.
I think it begins with a minimum wage that allows people to work and live above a subsistence level. Yet every conservative rants and raves at how setting a minimum wage is governmental interference taking away the invisible had of competition from the marketplace.
A livable minimum wage is the building block to move from poverty- employed or not- into the lower echelons of the middle class. It forms the floor for the compensation of more skilled jobs be they on the shop floor or in white collar activities, and it motivates the receipients of welfare to move into employment.
The ranters against a liveable minimum wage are the very architects of outsourcing. The advocates of a global economy predicated on competitive advantage which results in a race to the bottom, always looking for the next group willing to become wageslaves as opposed to just dying, but still living in abject poverty.
We need an economic policy dedicated to providing employment to as many as possible, at reasonable wages, delivering people the prospect of socio-economic mobility, which was the stone upon which the US was founded.
To many this will sound like the next step is protectionism. It is. But not of the American Dream,
but rather of the worldwide dream of a better life, beginning at home.
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