Years and years of neglect of the average working person...

[kentuck]

created the present environment. For almost a decade, they did nothing about the minimum wage. It was stuck at $5.15 an hour for years and years. At the same time, the big banks were sending out credit cards to these same people that had no value but their labor. And their labor was devalued in every respect. No matter how much productivity increased, the workers received nothing. All the wealth kept floating to the very top and the bottom working class became poorer and poorer. Much of the wealth from this labor went overseas. The working class was living on credit and re-financing of the homes they could not afford anyway. When that credit and re-financing dried up, there were no options left. There was nothing to buy anything with. And the corporations and big business never thought to give their people more money, so they could buy the products they produced. They forgot the lesson of Henry Ford, who paid his auto workers enough money so they could buy the cars they produced. The consumer market literally collapsed. The only solution is to put more money in the pockets of those that are productive and produce wealth. That would be the working people of this country. But the corporations and big businesses have no intention of sharing the wealth. They have stockholders to look out for. So, the one thing that could get us out of this mess is being totally ignored.