I live in South Carolina. Last week, Blue Cross/Blue Shield announced they were cutting almost 1,500 jobs in our state, almost 800 in the city where I live--representing something like 3% of all jobs in our small city. Where are those folks going to find new jobs? What happens to their families?
Every other week in this area and in North Carolina, it seems you hear about manufacturing or textile plants closing with those jobs going overseas--and those jobs aren't ever coming back.
I've seen friends, family, and neighbors lose their jobs, have their hours cut back, etc. My next-door neighbor graduated with an engineering degree last year, with honors. He still hasn't been able to find a job. When I graduated from college in 1987, industries were lining up outside the doors ready and waiting to hand out high-paying jobs to engineering grads.
We have a deficit that has spiraled out of control. When Bush entered office, he inherited a budget surplus. The truth is that you can't fight a war (or two or three or whatever number we're up to now) and cut taxes. It does not work. You also can't cut the taxes of the wealthiest citizens in this country and expect them to "trickle" down the wealth to the rest of us. It's not happening.
I've actually doubled my income in the past four years--but I'm that very rare exception. But am I spending my money or spending that tax cut? HELL NO--because I realize that the bottom could fall out at any moment and I'm holding onto every bit of money that I can.
My guess is that plenty of other people in this country are doing exactly the same thing. Employers aren't hiring because they don't have faith in the economy--and they can always get their current employees to take on extra duties instead of hiring new employees to do a job. So as a result, the middle class continues to get squeezed--we work longer hours, for less money.
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