http://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2012/04/26/18712151.php




The poor

by Ted Rudow III, MA ( Tedr77 [at] aol.com )

Thursday Apr 26th, 2012







The latest census data shows nearly one in two Americans, or 150 million people, have fallen into poverty — or could be classified as low income. "There seems to be a bipartisan consensus in Washington that the poor just don’t matter.



There seems to be a bipartisan consensus in Washington that the poor just don’t matter. President Obama is a part of that. President Obama is a part of that. Poverty is the new slavery. Oligarchs are the new kings. They’re the new heads of this structure of domination."

There is this gap between the haves and the have-nots, a growing gap, in fact. When 1 percent of the people control 42 percent—own and control 42 percent of the wealth, that’s a problem. When one out of two Americans is either in or near poverty—you take the perennially poor or the persistent poor, on top of them the new poor—we argue in this book the new poor are the former middle class—and the near poor, folk who are a paycheck away, that’s 150 million Americans wrestling with poverty.

MITT ROMNEY: The challenge right now—we will hear from the Democrat Party the plight of the poor, and—and there’s no question, it’s not good being poor, and we have a safety net to help those that are very poor. But my campaign is focused on middle-income Americans. My campaign—I mean, you can choose where to focus. You can focus on the rich. That’s not my focus. You can focus on the very poor. That’s not my focus. My focus is on middle-income Americans.

Ted Rudow III, MA