America's Working Poor

Today, for many of America's working poor, the bottom rung of the ladder is all they can aspire to. America, the land of opportunities, doesn't seem to have many opportunities for the poor -- nor does the political machine care enough to do anything for them -- if anything, politicians seem more inclined to cater to those with extreme ideologies and big business than the people. Most of the working poor can expect nothing more than minimum wage -- if they're non-unionized, they can expect no pension, no health care, no paid sick days -- no benefits. On average, a unionized blue collar worker can expect 54% more than those without unions -- and only 13% of the workforce belong to unions, compared to 35% about 50-years ago. Today, about a quarter of the American workforce live below the poverty line -- this from the world's richest, most powerful country -- where those at the bottom continue to be pushed lower, while the educated and those at the top, reap the rewards. In the industrialized world, America has the highest child-poverty rate. What can be done to help? For one thing, America should stop dropping million dollar bombs on other countries and divert some money to taking care of Americans. See below.