By James Hall
Today, as most would agree, the middle class, the work force of this nation, has been downgraded. Their living standards, family time and wages, among other things, were impacted by a standard Ronald Reagan pushed and passed in the name of “what is good for big business, is good for America.” He gave big business the signal that it was OK to break the unions by firing the air traffic controllers and that our government would not take any actions for him doing so. Trade unions were and still are the only voice of the working class that have the power to support those issues that keep the playing field level and fair. Reagan and the Republican Party sold out their powers and vote to corporate America then and there, and to this very day the middle-class workers need to remember this when they vote. The funding of the battle to defeat health care reform is coming directly from corporate America and who they have bought in our federal government, period.
Yes, some of the unions were tainted by organized crime, but, the power of our three branches of government could have weeded them out. Instead, Reagan chose to use this flaw to shut down the voice of rights for the working class of this nation, knowing exactly what he was doing. Since then, look at the differences in wage growth between the working class and the CEOs and rich investor class of this nation. Look at our education system, that now, from grades one through 12, train our youth to enter the work force, using the working class taxpayers” dollars, where in the past, colleges, vocational schools and business once paid for this education. In doing so, the arts, music and physical education have been slowly left in the dust, as no longer that important in the upbringing of our children. Even robbing the joy of childhood that we older Americans had, as we push the kids to be more competitive in order to chase the almighty dollar and greed as worthwhile goals as citizens of this nation. Bringing back the power and voice of the trade unions is an issue, hopefully, our new president takes positive action to restore.
James Hall
Clearlake Oaks
