Middle class its own worst enemy
Well, the attack on the middle class continues, and they have no one to blame but themselves.
They clamor that they want fiscal responsibility from their government. So where do the cuts come from? They come from health care. The working poor people making minimum wage or not much better, who relied on government-funded health care no longer have it, and it isn’t like the corporations that employ them are going to offer benefits anytime soon. That would cut into their multi-billion dollar revenues.
That means higher health care prices for everyone, as these people must go to the emergency room for even minor things, because emergency rooms must treat everyone who comes. It isn’t like doctors can change their fees just for the working poor.
Where else do cuts come from? They also come from education. From our president down to our governor, the middle class loses. Funding cuts for K-12 education means your middle class kids get a poorer educational experience than ever before. If you felt your kids’ weren’t getting the most out of education before, wait until you see budget cuts. Don’t blame teachers unions either. Without unions, your kids’ educations would be even worse, as the salaries that would be paid out, and lack of benefits, would not attract anyone but the ones who can’t get better jobs in private schools.
Why waste four or six years in college and graduate school getting an education, only to be offered a job that doesn’t pay much more than one for which you could have a high school diploma?
Speaking of college, cuts to colleges mean less professors, and less financial aid for the middle class. Rich people can afford to send their children to private K-12 schools, and pay their way through college. A college education is necessary to advance beyond working class anymore – even the most basic jobs ask for a college graduate.
Without funding for colleges, your middle class kids don’t go to college and won’t advance in life. They get stuck working minimum wage jobs, or jobs with no chance for advancement and no benefits. But, oh, they also don’t get quality health care, so they will most likely die younger, too.
This is what happens when you vote wealthy people into office. This is what happens when you listen to the rhetoric that national security and deregulation are the most important things for the government to do.
This is what happens when you have no idea of what “fiscal responsibility” means to your elected officials. I knew this would happen. It isn’t like we have an FDR or an LBJ in office anymore, skilled politicians who knew how to serve the populace while finding funding for their programs.
Our politicians these days are only out for themselves and their wealthy cronies. They bait you with their promises to keep gays from getting married or stopping abortions for women who are raped, appealing to what you purport to be your morals.
But what they really stand for is taking from each one of you until you have nothing and they have everything. Corporations control this country. Most of them don’t pay taxes, yet take in billions of dollars a year.
The middle class is supporting this country, yet they are the ones who get hurt. And the saddest part is, they do it to themselves. There is no other country on this earth whose middle class works against their own interests as much as ours.
So when your kids can’t get into college, and don’t have the money to do it anyhow, look in the mirror. Is keeping gays from getting married worth your kids’ future? Because that is how you voted. Good luck. You’re going to need it.
Kelly E. Rusinack, M.A., is a resident of Bitner.