(UPDATE: Adds final graf with phone number to call Congress.)
We have a news flash for the editors of the Tampa Bay Times and likeminded people calling for cuts to Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, aka "shared sacrifice." Here it is: The middle class has sacrificed quite enough already, thank you.
The Atlantic reports:
Between 2007 and 2010, the median net worth of U.S. households fell by 47 percent, reaching its lowest level in more than forty years, adjusted for inflation. In other words, middle class wealth virtually evaporated in this country. A good chunk of the population got sucked through a financial wormhole back to the sixties.
Such are the findings of Edward Wolff, an economist at New York University who has produced a paper documenting the Chernobyl-like meltdown of asset values during the recession, and its impact on wealth inequality. To some degree, his work confirms what we've already more or less known; home prices, 401Ks, and the like were demolished during in the recession, and we've been reckoning with the consequences since.So peddle your "shared sacrifice" apples elsewhere.
P.S. To all you hard-working Americans out there: Call 888-979-9806 TODAY and tell your Representative to make no cuts to Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, but end tax breaks for the wealthiest 2 percent.
