A Progressive Economic Plan
In a Senate floor speech last week, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) laid out a progressive economic agenda that would create millions of new jobs, raise wages, protect the environment and provide health care for all. Sanders laid out the problem facing America: the murder of the middle class by the rich.
“Today, millions of Americans are working longer hours for lower wages[.] We once led the world in terms of the percentage of our people who graduated college, but we are now in 12th place. Our infrastructure, once the envy of the world, is collapsing. Real unemployment today is not 5.8 percent, it is 11.5 percent, if we include those who have given up looking for work or who are working part time when they want to work full time. Youth unemployment is 18.6 percent and African-American youth unemployment is 32.6 percent.”
I think I could support most of the 12 steps. They are, for the most part, good goals and objectives. The devil, though, is in the details. He offers the what, but not the how. As an example, “In today’s highly competitive global economy, millions of Americans are unable to afford the higher education they need in order to get good-paying jobs.” Ok. I’ll buy that. What do we do about it? More student loan guarantees? Force universities to make tuition lower? Of course then, there is the debate about whether one even needs higher education for a good paying job. Unfortunately, we have to deal with the national will. We, the American people, can do anything we decide we want to do. We merely have to have the will to do it. Without coming together, nothing will happen. It would be nice if there was a way to unite the people to achieve common goals but with the divisiveness in our nation today, I don’t see that happening in my lifetime.