Sustaining a Healthy Middle-Class
We Need for National Policies for Middle-Class Health
by Paul Edwards
“The way to put money into the hands of working people is to make sure they have access to good jobs at good wages.”
Robert Herbert, New York Times
In Sarah’s and my book Middle-Class Lifeboat we have written about the many things middle-class individuals and families can do to safeguard their own futures in today’s changing global economy, but there are many things we as individuals cannot do on our own to offset its threatening effects on our security.
In a democratic society such as ours, the role of government is to safeguard those aspects of life that no one individual or family can do alone. National government policies can play a large role in either easing or exacerbating the economic pressures felt by the middle class. They can also facilitate or complicate our ability to take the steps we need to take to protect ourselves.
Although the middle class includes the majority of the American population, there are other powerful national stakeholders and their interests do not always correspond with those of the middle class. We can’t assume government will automatically base public policy around our needs. Nor can we assume they will provide an infrastructure for adapting to today’s dramatically changing economic and environmental realities. We must define what needs to be done that only government can do and be sure that they do it by organizing for and voting in a government with policies that will support our future as a multi-cultural nation of predominately middle-class individuals and families.
If we don’t do this, signs are that we will become yet another nation composed mainly of a select few elite who are rich and a vast mass of struggling poor. Already, many middle-class families are struggling and the gap between rich and poor is growing astonishingly wider
Reversing the trends that are causing so many Americans to believe our nation is headed in the wrong direction will require us to act now with the spirit and inventiveness that created this nation and has preserved it again and again when tested in the heat of conflict and the chill of crisis. We urgently need innovation to spur sustainable quality job creation, a healthy workforce, a well-educated workforce, a secure workforce, committed leaders who will do what needs to be done and reliable, fair ways to pay for it.
Even in the face of today’s dramatic change, we can have a country where everyone has a fair chance to use his or her talents and earn a living. We can have a country where we can go to bed knowing that should we or a family member, become ill, care will be available. We can have a country where our children are prepared to take their place in a promising future.
In this spirit, we will be proposing a wide-range of National Policies for Sustaining a Healthy Middle Class. We need, and can have, jobs for today and jobs for tomorrow!
(c) Paul Edwards, 2008
February 28th, 2009 at 7:56 am
We need to talk about health in a literal sense, as well. The health care situation in this country is abominable. No one can afford health care except the rich and healthy. Need need single-payer now!