On the recordMarch 16, 2010
I wish to say a few words about the nature of the economy today, the cause of the very deep recession we are currently in, and what I think we have to do about it. Right now, our country is experiencing the worst economy since the Great Depression of the 1930s. While officially unemployment is 9.7 percent, the reality is that we have some 19 percent of our people who are either unemployed or underemployed, people who would like to work 40 hours a week but they are only working 20 or 30 hours a week. The crisis we are addressing today is magnified by the reality that the recession for the middle class and working families of this country did not just begin in the fall of 2008 with the financial crisis. In fact, the middle class has been collapsing for a very long time. During the Bush administration, over 8 million Americans slipped out of the middle class and into poverty. Today, some 40 million Americans are living in poverty. During the Bush years, median household income declined by over $2,100. Middle-class Americans earned more income in 1999 than they did in 2008, and middle-class men earned more money in 1973 than they did in 2008, with inflation being accounted for. When we look at people in this country who are angry, there is the reason. After working long and hard hours, tens of millions of Americans find themselves in worse economic shape today than they were in 10 years ago or even 20 years ago.
