By John J. Sweeney
Our families are modestly better off today than we were 30 years ago—but not because the American Dream is coming true. It's mostly because women have gone to work outside the home. That and we have smaller families now.
What is the next generation going to do to keep afloat—send children into the workforce?
America's economy is crumbling around us while becoming less and less fair. If we want our children to have a prayer at a better life, we'd better reclaim this economy for working families—starting now.
Three recent reports by the Pew Charitable Trusts put into startling black and white the uneasiness the public is feeling these days about our economy. Incomes may not be growing, but the chasm between white and black and between haves and have-nots certainly is—shockingly.
Take a look at a few dire facts:
- One-third of U.S. families are "downwardly mobile," falling behind their parents' income and economic status.
- Men's incomes actually have fallen in the past 30 years, especially black men's.
- We have an economic caste system. Where someone ends up on the economic landscape is largely determined by where his or her parents were.
- But almost half of black children in middle-income families fall out of the middle class and tumble to the bottom of the economic pool. Rising to the middle class does not protect a black family's children.
- There was no progress in reducing the income gap between black and white families between 1974 and 2004. In 2004, the income of black families in their 30s was a little more than half (58 percent) that of their white counterparts.
- Low-income children have less chance of climbing the economic ladder in the United States than in northern European countries.
Once they reach adulthood, these children face another huge challenge: Debt. Today's young adults make up a generation of debt—saddled with crushing college loan repayments, running up credit card debt to cover basic expenses, finding that starting salaries haven't kept pace with soaring health care and housing costs. Debt threatens young adults' ability to just keep up with day-to-day life, much less support a family and buy a home.
What is it going to take to convince our leaders that working families need a fighting chance? That we need trade and economic policies that build good jobs here rather than export them? That we need the Employee Free Choice Act to ensure every worker has the freedom to join a union and bargain collectively for a better life? That we must have a health care system that sustains rather than drains working families?
It's going to take an election.
One year from now, we'll have a new president, new members of Congress and new leadership at every level. Pick up the phone today and call your central labor council to volunteer for the union movement's 2008 political program. Find out how you can make sure 2009 is the year we get America's economy back on track for working families.
