Before the present Great Recession, working people in the U.S. had already suffered a decades-long assault. Between 1973 and 2007 our real weekly wages dropped by 15%. By 2008 the average worker spent 20% more time on the job than in the 1970s. During this period, the amount we produced per hour increased by 50%. Our public services and safety nets were shredded while our pensions and social security were looted. We gave our blood, sweat and nerves in greater portions every decade for ever declining compensation.
But this massive robbery was not enough to keep the gears of profit turning. Nor did the trillions of dollars spent on wars or gambled away in speculative ventures keep U.S. capitalism competitive. After all the pain inflicted by the corporations and their political partners, the whole machine still broke down.
In what was supposed to be the final indignity, we were forced to shell out trillions of dollars to the same banks that helped usher in the dark ages. The result? Millions more of us are torn from our jobs to join a sea of the unemployed. Over 20% of workers are now under or unemployed! Our wages and benefits are slashed over and over again. Our homes are taken out from under us, our credit is cut, our education and public services disappear before our eyes. Those of us who still have jobs are working harder than ever to hang onto our remaining islands of security.
We are told by the president that it is time to tighten our belts. Yet, the banks don’t tighten their belts. The six biggest financial institutions paid their people $150 billion in 2009. And instead of investing in jobs and providing for human needs they are throwing money at the same types of speculation that paralyzed the economy only a year ago.
The war machine does not tighten its belt either. Instead it consumes record budgets and extends its terror deeper into Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen, Haiti, Palestine, Latin America, Somalia, and beyond. These wars and occupations are not waged to protect working people in the U.S. or to liberate other countries. Their purpose is to defend the interests of the corporate elite.
The ruling rich cut our basic services and deprive us of employment, yet they find money to warehouse ever more of us in their prisons. Connecticut’s bloated prison budget will grow from $691 million in 2009 to $709 million for 2010. Already in 2008 the Pew center found that more than one in every 100 adults in the U.S. was in prison or jail – a record in U.S. history.
After all the promises of hope and change we are now told to expect less than ever before. Where has all the wealth we have created gone? Why, after all this, is our condition more desperate than ever?
