America now has more wealth and income inequality than any major developed country on earth, and the gap between the very rich and everyone else is wider than at any time since the 1920s.
There is something profoundly wrong when the top one-tenth of one percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent.
There is something profoundly wrong when 58 percent of all new income since the Wall Street crash has gone to the top one percent.
At the current pace of improvement, employment rates across the U.S. won’t return to normal levels until the 2020s, “amounting to more than a relative ‘lost decade’ of depressed employment for…half of the country,” University of California, Berkeley, economist Danny Yagan wrote in a working paper posted this week on his website. He said the research paper soon will go through peer review.
For too many years, we have dramatically underfunded the physical infrastructure that our economy depends on. That is why I have proposed the Rebuild America Act, to invest $1 trillion over five years to modernize our infrastructure. It would be paid for by closing loopholes that allow profitable corporations to avoid paying taxes by, among other things, shifting their profits to the Cayman Islands and other offshore tax havens.
Importantly, the Rebuild America Act will support more than thirteen million good-paying jobs – jobs that our economy desperately needs.
— Senator Bernie Sanders
x YouTube VideoWhile moving to where jobs are more plentiful would be a good strategy for those in high-unemployment areas, we know that the Americans have less mobility—economic and geographic—than they did in previous decades. Geographic migration data from the U.S. Census Bureau finds that the percentage of Americans who move to a different state or a different county within the same state has plummeted by nearly half since the 1980s. As Justin Fox points out at Bloomberg, it’s even worse for white Americans with no college education, a rough approximate of the working-class whites derided for their supposed lack of initiative. Poorer Americans are now more likely to stay put. To put it simply, they don’t have enough money to move.
Millions of Americans are working for totally inadequate wages. We must ensure that no full-time worker lives in poverty. The current federal minimum wage is starvation pay and must become a living wage. We must increase it to $15 an hour over the next several years.
Proposed a national $15 per hour minimum wage. Led the effort to increase the minimum wage for federal contract workers to $10.10 an hour. Introduced the “Workplace Democracy Act” to strengthen the role of unions and the voices of working people on the job. As mayor of Burlington, was a strong collaborator with unions. Leading the fight in the Senate for a $15 an hour minimum wage and a union for fast food workers, and federal contract workers. x YouTube Video Where is Bernie Sanders on the Issues? Where he’s always been. His positions are not a matter of convenience or getting elected. Bernie’s positions are founded on his sincere beliefs and principles demonstrated by a lifetime of action.Click the links below for more information on Bernie’s positions on the issues.
Income and Wealth InequalityStrengthen and Expand Social SecurityCombating Climate Change to Save the PlanetIt’s Time to Make College Tuition Free and Debt FreeGetting Big Money Out of Politics and Restoring DemocracyCreating Jobs Rebuilding AmericaA Living WageA Fair and Humane Immigration PolicyRacial JusticeFighting for Women’s RightsWorking to Create an AIDS and HIV-Free GenerationFighting for LGBT EqualityEmpowering Tribal NationsCaring for our VeteransMedicare for AllFighting to Lower Prescription Drug PricesFighting for Disability RightsEnding the Humanitarian Crisis in Puerto RicoSupporting Historically Black Colleges and UniversitiesImproving the Rural EconomyReforming Wall StreetReal Family ValuesWar and PeaceWar Should Be the Last Option: Why I Support the Iran DealMaking the Wealthy, Wall Street, and Large Corporations Pay their Fair ShareHow Bernie pays for his proposals x YouTube Video With Bernie Sanders you know what you are getting. Vote for Bernie! Get Out the Vote! FaceBanking for Bernie.Be a part of something YUGE and Keep Donating! x YouTube Video