For a Fairer America
Even college graduates, who have long enjoyed a big edge in wages and benefits, are feeling the pinch because of the soaring costs of tuition. The average amount borrowed by college students who graduated in 2004 was $19,000-more than a third higher than was borrowed by graduates a decade earlier. Entry-level wages for male college graduates, meanwhile, fell by 7.3 percent in the five years ending in 2005 and by 3.5 percent for female graduates over the same period. Younger workers have also been hit: The median income for a family with at least one parent between the ages of 25 and 34 fell 6 percent between 2000 and 2005, after having jumped 12 percent in the late 1990s.
These are the realities underlying a recent poll showing that only 39 percent believe the nation's economy is in good shape, compared with roughly 7 of 10 who felt similarly when George W. Bush first took office. So why are we surprised when 55 percent of the public thinks its income isn't keeping pace with inflation if only 9 percent sees itself getting ahead? Sadly, more than half those surveyed-51 percent-believe their children will be worse off financially.
The reason so many Americans believe this is a bad economy is that for them, it truly is. Three government initiatives to allow greater economic equity among all Americans suggest themselves urgently:
More support for education at all levels;
A major effort to brake soaring healthcare costs;
A new minimum wage-it was last raised nearly a decade ago, and its purchasing power has deteriorated to the lowest inflation-adjusted level since 1955.
America's lopsided Gilded Age gave birth to a strong populist reaction. Today, similar forces are simmering just below the surface. Inequality and insecurity have simply become too pervasive a feature of American life. The American Dream shouldn't just be a dream.
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