the middle class in our state has made no economic progress since 1989, and we've been heading downhill over the last 5 years :(
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0511/21/ldt.01.html - 21 nov 2005
Well, as GM workers face massive layoffs, a disturbing new report illustrates the war on the middle class.
A new study says the living standards of middle class workers in Illinois fell by such a dramatic rate that their financial condition is no better today than it was in 1989.Lisa Sylvester reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
LISA SYLVESTER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Joe Bresnahan and his family are learning how to stretch a dollar. He worked for Maytag in Galesburg, Illinois, for 16 years, but the plant closed. His job shipped to Mexico, where the workers are paid in cents, not dollars.
JOE BRESNAHAN, FMR. MAYTAG WORKER: I'm not going to work for 58 cents an hour. There's no way that we can compete.
It's got to stop. The gap -- there is no more middle class in my mind. You're either rich or you're poor.SYLVESTER: Joe now works for a company packaging art supplies.
BRESNAHAN: I bring home every two weeks what I used to bring home in a week, and used to have good health insurance, dental, vision. And none of that now.
SYLVESTER: His story is being repeated all over Illinois. The state has lost more than 200,000 manufacturing jobs since 1990. Middle class families haven't just stalled on the economic ladder, they're being kicked further down.
A new study by the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability shows the state's median income of $46,000 is at the same level as it was in 1989. During the '90s, when the economy was booming, the job growth was in the lower paid service industry, and many high-paying jobs were shipped overseas.
RALPH MARTIRE, CTR. FOR TAX & BUDGET ACCOUNTABILITY:
We are truly feeling the impact of globalization, and it's not like the old days where maybe one high-paying wage sector would go away in the economy and another high-paying wage sector would jump up to replace it. That's not what's really happening now.SYLVESTER: What's happening in Illinois is also occurring in the rest of the country.
LEE PRICE, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE: Illinois a little bit more than the rest of the country. But the country as a whole,
the typical family in the middle of the income spectrum is doing worse than they were five years ago. SYLVESTER: That's because middle class families like Joe's Bresnahan's have not only seen their paycheck shrink, they're also coping with rising costs of gas, housing and food.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SYLVESTER: The workers who fared the best were college educated. Having a high school diploma is simply not enough to get ahead.
And the authors of this study say
this trend of shrinking paychecks is only going to get worse unless policymakers come up with different decisions -- Kitty.
PILGRIM: Disturbing report. Thanks very much. Lisa Sylvester.
www.GlobalismScorecard.org