I'm appalled at many of the comments on this page: More Americans Living in Poverty
I'm so tired of people blaming the victims. Tired old hackneyed excuses of too many babies, too lazy, deserving of being poor. This economy only works for the well off. A "living wage" is double what the minimum wage is and yet millions of people don't receive one. Many people do back-breaking work for 40 or 50 years at very low wages. There is always someone willing to do the job at that wage, so they have no choice. We despise unions because they try and increase the wages of working people to a living wage standard. Illegal mmigration is a boon to American corporations because it holds down wages, so that is why it never gets fixed. We should be demonizing the people who hire illegal immigrants, not the people just seeking to work and provide for their families. We are falling in our standard of living for the vast majority of Americans, while other developed countries aren't. We used to be number one - we are lucky to still be considered number 11 now. It's only a matter of time before we slip further. Henry Ford believed that you needed to pay people well so they could buy the products you were selling. We no longer believe that, because 1) we don't make many products anymore and 2) corporations can always sell those products overseas instead [see GM selling more cars in China than US]. But the reaction is to blame people who are poor for being poor, people who are unemployed for being unemployed, people who are sick and uninsured for being sick and uninsured. A rising tide lifts all boats, but a falling one grounds all those boats on dry land. We are grounding millions of Americans, in a misguided ideology of inidividual responsibility, when the corporations and the rich are really pulling the strings. Wake up, before it is too late.
