The class divide is creating a class warfare that is pitting your children against the rich children, who will have more money, better healthcare, education, food, housing, entertainment, vacations and finding a rich, well-educated mate than their poorer cohorts. If the rich should run afoul of the law, they can hire the best attorneys and not have to rely on court appointed attorneys.
HBO had a documentary by Marc Levin called “Class Divide” which looked at this phenomenon with the perfect example — 10th Avenue and 26th Street — which showed an elite school, called Avenues, on one side of the street, and on the other side was the public housing development, Chelsea-Elliot Houses, home to 2,500 people, most from the working poor.
Now, the “Used to be Middle Class” children and their families are facing a similar situation as the government looks to cut funding to education, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, unemployment, disability insurance, government aide programs, geography and housing assistance and affordability. The federal government is raising interest rates in both 2018 and 2019. The poor are already encumbered by huge debt. U.S. households will be forced to pay higher interest on their debt. The final straw that breaks the back of the Middle Class.
Most troublesome is that this leaves people with less money for current spending, which could push the economy into a recession and put inequity on steroids and perpetuate social problems like substance abuse, obesity, diabetes and declining school performance, and much, much more.
What we will end up with are two classes, and this will not turn out well, especially if there is no way for each class to have a government which will represent all of us and not just the very rich who can buy local, state and federal politicians who are destroying the poor’s last bastion of hope — unions. In favor of corporations, elected officials are passing right to work laws, weakening labor laws and eliminating members from having to pay dues, which are used for unions’ collective bargaining efforts. This issue is now awaiting a decision from the U.S. Supreme Court.
Yes, they are coming for us. Workers need to have one another’s backs because no one else will. Neither the broader labor movement nor the Democratic party are prepared to meet the urgency of this moment. So it’s going to fall upon the rest of us to mount a real resistance against Trump’s authoritarian takeover. We’re going to have to get our hands dirty. I don’t care if you have a good, well-paying union job and you are in the middle class now—if you see a worker being dragged out of his workplace regardless of how skilled the job and potentially taken to another country, you should be ready to be there for that worker. When I.C.E. shows up, gather around and shame them into leaving. It has worked in other places. America is sleep walking into authoritarianism, and if there’s anyone out there who is a member of a labor union that is safe—at this point— and doesn’t think this applies to them. Understand that they just haven’t gotten to you yet. They’re coming for all of us. There are ...
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