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Conservative Economics wrecked our
economy and crushed the middle class
◦ Big banks and Wall Street gambled our economy to
the ground, then got bailed out
◦ Politicians gave tax breaks to the rich and
corporations (the 1%) that ship jobs overseas, or
create poverty-wage jobs in the U.S.
◦ Austerity (cuts) took more money out of the
economy, from the places we could least afford.
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The people who wrecked our economy should
be paying for it, not profiting from it.
Most of us don’t expect to be rich, but we do
expect to earn a decent living and good
benefits for a hard day’s work – not paying
for the mistakes of reckless Wall Street
speculators.
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Our economic success is driven by investing
in people so that every American has a good
job, can educate their kids, support and care
for their families, and retire with security.
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Our economy is sputtering today because
working class buying power is stalling, as
corporate profits and CEO pay soar.
Trickle-down tax cuts for the rich haven’t
created jobs.
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Working people create jobs by spending
money on goods and services.
Cutting benefits, limiting opportunity, and
freezing wages hurts us all by shrinking the
buying power of working people.
We need to invest in good jobs, education,
and health care for all to increase
opportunity.
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We used to have an economic bargain
between government, businesses, and labor.
Our leaders have an obligation to help grow
the middle class.
How to Talk About It
◦Our economy isn’t something that
happens to us. It is a choice that we make
together.
◦The great American middle class didn’t
just happen. It was built, brick by brick.
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Having the right message is not enough. We
need to organize, we need to fight, and we
need to take direct action.
The 1% in this country aren’t going to give us
a better deal – we need to demand it and, if
necessary, take it.
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12 years ago, a plant in your town shut down. Over 1,200 workers
were displaced when the jobs were shipped to China. These were
$25-$35/hour jobs with great health insurance and a definedbenefit pension. The town paid $1.5 million to remediate the site,
based on a promise of a new apartment development. When the
developer lost financing, the project was dead. It’s been a
brownfield site for the past 10 years, and is an eyesore and an
environmental scourge on the community.
Now, a new developer has offered to build a strip mall at the
location, which will have a Panera Bread, a Radio Shack, a Pet World,
and a Starbucks. The developer is asking the town council for taxfree financing and 14 years of zero property taxes. The town’s
political leaders are eager to say “yes,” citing the jobs that it will
bring to town. The town council meets again in 5 weeks and this
issue will likely be on a fast-track, possibly voted on at that
meeting. There is a Development Authority committee meeting in
10 days.
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Educationfund.usaction.org/pen/