Thread: Slavery, American Style, Must Go!

Slavery, American Style, Must Go!
Friday, 5 December 2008, 1:45 pm
Column: Sherwood Ross

Slavery, American Style, Must Go!
By Sherwood Ross

Who says there are no slaves in America? The greatest domestic issue facing President-elect Obama is not the bailout of the bankers and insurers but the task of lifting tens of millions of hard-working American wage-slaves out of dire poverty. These are the folks who hold one- and sometimes two or even three low-paying jobs, work their tails off 60 hours or more a week, and are still stuck in poverty on payday with no hope of climbing out.

Indeed, if enough workers were getting paid a living wage Wall Street and Detroit would not find themselves begging Washington for billions. Homeowners would have enough money to pay their mortgages and buy new cars. Today’s crisis is the bitter payback for decades of corporate greed. As former Labor Secretary Robert Reich has written, “Most of what’s been earned in Americaâ€

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Poverty is so virulent, there are 18,000 children sleeping in homeless shelters in New York City every night and 1.7-million New Yorkers are eligible for food stamps. “Twenty-five percent of all families with children in New York City---that’s 1.5 million New Yorkers---are trying to make it on incomes that are below the poverty threshold established by the federal government,â€

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