While the politicians in Washington continue to play political games and ignore the economic reality that this nation is fast becoming one of the most unequal nations on Earth, there is one ex-president who is still willing to speak the truth -- Jimmy Carter. Taking time off from helping out Habitat for Humanity in Oakland on Monday, Carter gave an interview to the Associated Press.He said that too many years of tax breaks for the wealthy, a minimum wage that has not kept up with inflation, and gerrymandered electoral districts that maximize political polarization, have reduced the quality of life for most Americans and put in peril the country's standing as a "real superpower".
He is absolutely right. The Republican policies we have lived under for the last three decades have seriously damaged this country, and we must change those policies. Here is more of what he had to say:
"Even in one of the wealthiest parts of the world there is a great deal of foreclosures and now a great deal of people who are fortunate to own their own houses owe more on them than the houses are worth in the present market, and that's all changed in the last eight years."
"The disparity between rich people and poor people in America has increased dramatically since when we started. The middle class has become more like poor people than they were 30 years ago. So I don't think it's getting any better."
"Equity of taxation and treating the middle class with a great deal of attention, providing funding for people in true need, like for affordable housing, those are the sort of things that would pay rich dividends for Americans no matter what kind of income they have."
"The richest people in America would be better off if everybody lived in a decent home and had a chance to pay for it, and if everyone had enough income even if they had a daily job to be good buyers for the products that are produced."
