Live Working or Die Fighting: How the Working Class Went Global

"I think the number one fact that history will record about the three decades we've lived through is the doubling of the world's work force." — Paul Mason

The Census Bureau’s latest report shows that the numbers of Americans living in poverty and without health insurance have skyrocketed. 43.6 million people—about one in seven—lived below the poverty level of $22,000 for a family of four in 2009, a fifteen-year high of 14.3 percent

DEMOCRACYNOW Sep 24, 2010 | "[the middle class is] disappearing. For us, the Brits, the concept of the American middle class has always been a bit flaky. We notice that your politicians call people who earn salaries and work "workers" at election time and then "middle-class" when things are going, you know, a little bit south in terms of the economy. The figures you’ve just read out are borne out by the income statistics. We had the Census Bureau telling us that American average incomes have stagnated for a decade—on some measures, stagnated for thirty years. We know what filled the gap: credit. The credit boom is over. And I think, for many Americans I’ve met on this trip, the whole—the economic collapse of their lives. I met a couple who had lost—who had gone from 75,000 pounds a year to 14,000 pounds a year. I said to them, 'Do you still feel middle-class?' They said, 'Kind of, but we’re not sure what that means anymore.'"

more »