This Middle Class Amnesia Won’t Last Much Longer

[starroute]

5. This is the real meaning of the attack on "entitlements"

It's not just about Social Security and Medicare. It's about the middle class expectation that all Americans were entitled to a decent standard of living -- encompassing food, shelter, health care, education, a reasonable allocation for recreation and minor luxuries, and a dignified retirement -- and that it was the job of the government to make those things possible.

Right now, the message coming through loud and clear is that nobody is "entitled" to any of those things -- that if you bust your ass for 60 hours a week, you might "earn" some of them, and that the rest were never more than an illusion sold by liberal candidates out to attract voters by giving them free stuff.

That's what we have to push back against. That's where we have to take a stand and argue that we have an unalienable right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" -- which includes the necessities for survival, freedom from corporate tyranny, and something left over for self-realization.

If we don't do that now, we're screwed forever. And it starts by saying, "Yes, we are entitled, just by being human."