Thread: Sen Sanders: The Collapse of the Middle Class, Letters...

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The Collapse of the Middle Class, Letters from Vermont and America -- 06/06/2008

By Senator Bernard Sanders

The official unemployment rate in the United States surged to 5.5 percent last month, the Labor Department announced this morning. The biggest increase in more than two decades will be on the front pages of the Saturday newspapers. Statistics are one thing. Real life is another.

As gas and oil prices soared and as the nation slipped into recession, I made a request to Vermonters on my e-mail list. I asked them to tell me what was going on in their lives economically. That was it. Frankly, I expected a few dozen replies. I was amazed, therefore, when my office received more than 700 responses from all across the state, as well as some from other states.

A Vermont mother wrote, “We have at times had to choose between baby food and heating fuel.â€

Wish i had the power to stick Dubya's nose and Wall Streets also into this article till they screamed for mercy (that'll never happen with golden spoon boy).