Monday, June 21, 2004

Economic Recovery?
There is a powerful graphic at the Economic Policy Institute site, demonstrating the difference between this "recovery" and the past eight. You should check it out. Remember, the red bar shows what a George W recovery looks like, the blue bar is an average of the previous eight. Kevin Drum, who also links to this graph, sums it up nicely:
....how can anyone defend this? Easy. The free market extremists at the top of the modern Republican party argue that economic growth is caused by the risk-taking executives of Fortune 5000 companies, and therefore they deserve the benefits of that growth. Worker bees don't make any contribution — they just work — so why should they get anything?

Treating labor like a commodity is a morally bankrupt policy, but it's one that's become an epidemic in the Republican party: they don't just want a bigger piece of the pie anymore, they want the whole pie. Surely it's past time for George Bush's beloved "real America" to revolt over this cynical treatment from conservative elitists?
This is the 2004 message, not gay marriage, not abortion rights, not the war on terror even. We have represented economic hope throughout the world because our middle class has been strong, accessible (mostly), and allows the widespread chance for workers to enjoy their family and life, not just fret over them.

They say that in the big scheme of the expanding vastness of space, the galaxies that are the farthest away are also racing, and accelerating, away from ours at the quickest pace. That is what it feels like to be in the working poor (or worse) right now watching the wealthiest 1% of our citizens. It is not supposed to be like that in America.

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