OP-ED: 'The Super-Rich have a Megaphone While We Have a Tin Cup'

Stopping poverty should not be a controversial issue. In this great recession where costs continue to rise, and where people are paid less and less, a larger percentage of the profits are going to the super rich elite.  I have talked to tenants all over Bloomfield.  Many have confided in me that their entire social security checks are going to pay their rent and that they are still 300 dollars short.

Councilman Nick Joanow, Robert Ruane and Janice Litterio all supported a bill that would put restrictions on rent increases -- because stopping poverty should not be a controversial issue.  Councilman Carlos Bernard has also stated that, if elected, he would support rent control because high rents are pushing people into poverty.

Its really very simple: production is up and we work harder then ever. Americans put in more hours and their companies  profits by their work more than ever before. Yet the owners of these companies take the profit for themselves, leaving their workers in poverty. Landlords then charge more rent while companies pay less.

My friend’s mother is on food stamps because Walmart only pays her $8 an hour.  She had to foreclose on her home because Walmart only pays her $8 an hour.  She is on supplemental security income because Walmart only pays her $8 an hour.  Yet the CEO of Walmart makes $35 million a year.  When converted to hours, he makes $16,826 an hour.  A Walmart employee makes an average of $13,650 a year.  That means the CEO makes more in an hour then his employees make in a year.

In America we have democracy but the top one percent can pay lobbyists to re-write laws that favor corporations.  We have free speech but the super rich have a megaphone of high paid commercial ads while the rest of us have a tin cup.  We have political parties but landlords and corporations have funded both parties so that no matter who wins someone is in their pocket.  We are in a Plutocracy where the rich can buy more democracy then the rest of us.
                              
Even in civil suits, you are not entitled to a lawyer unless you can afford one or find a charitable law firm to provide you with one.  So if your company has with held a few thousand dollars from your paychecks, rest assured your corporation will hire the best paid lawyer to defend . . . themselves. While we argue about philosophical issues, the super rich are laughing all the way to the bank.  Whether its a Republican foreclosing on their house or a Democrat priced out of their apartment, let’s stand with each other. Let’s have a roof over our heads while we engage in philosophical debates. Let’s fix this economy. Let’s end this fixed corporate Plutocracy.  Let’s bring back fair democracy again.

Kevin Lindahl                                                    

Vice President Bloomfield Tenants Organization

862 204 8297