Unemployment is not too much higher than the rest of the nation, but the union factory jobs have vanished down Mexico way, and a good many union miners have been replaced by machines. In much of Appalachia, a job at McDonald s is not the start but the finish. Simply put, we have lost the moral strength and the political will it takes to do something about America s hollows and Harlems. It s not a matter of money. We ve got a federal surplus.
Most states are flush.
We bail out Russia, China, Indonesia, Japan, South Korea, sundry nations in Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Latin America and Africa, plus reckless banks and big investors. It s not that we need the dollars for defense. We re the last superpower standing. According to the Right-Wing masters of Congress, we can afford to lay out billions for military grants and loans to foreign countries, but we can t afford to raise the minimum wage. We can afford giant tax breaks for Bill Gates and his soulmates, but we can t afford job training for people hanging on by their fingernails.