Political Quotes

“Entrepreneurship is growing. There are many more people at the upper echelons of our economic society than there was a generation or two ago. As I watch that happen, I think that is a good thing for America. But I would point out that the strength for America has been in the breadth for a prosperous middle class that began to grow in a dramatic way during World War II when Rosie the Riveter went off to work. The middle class grew. We had 1.2 percent unemployment rate back during those years. As the paycheck came back into the household, and I should also credit Henry Ford because when he put his automobile into production, he wanted to make sure that the people he hired had enough money to buy one of his cars, so he paid them a good wage. That was competitive and that spread across this Nation. So the prosperity of the middle class grew, and it grew from the early part of the 20th century and it grew dramatically in the second half of the 20th century. As it did, the greatness of America grew with it. You could maybe be a high school dropout but if you were a good worker, you could punch a clock at the local factory and take home a paycheck that was adequate enough that you could buy a modest home and raise your family with dignity and pride and values. That middle class got broader and broader up until perhaps 10 years ago when we began to see it shrink. There was pressure on the middle class from the upper class.…”