MSNBC's host of the Ed show, Ed Shultz, sheds light on the GOP's attack on American wage earners. Shultz points his finger at the likes of NJ's Chris Christie and Ohio's Governor-elect John Kasich who are leading the fight against the average wage earners of America by taking on labor unions right to strike and attempting to take away hard earned health and pension benefits.
Shultz talks with Leo Gerard, president of the United Steelworkers, about the decline of American workers at the hands of the GOP and their bad trade deals of the last 30 years that have sent good paying jobs overseas at the expense of American workers.
"Outstanding reporting published in the Financial Times on the crisis of middle class America. This is real, a must-read story. The story looks deeply into a few typical middle class families being financially suffocated by the economy with stagnated wages and increasing bills to pay. At some point, somethings got to give.
One family has an autistic son whose future they fear in such an uncertain landscape.
"....in the past few years the Freemans have been running low on optimism. 'I guess the penny dropped in the last 18 months when we finally realised that it’s always going to be like this – we are never going to be able to retire on our savings,' says Connie. 'As for Andy,' she says, referring to her painfully shy but acutely observant son, 'the future really frightens me. If you’re young, it’s bad enough nowadays. But for a kid with autism?'"
This story also illustrates that while the wealthy become wealthier the poor are becoming poorer: ".....the annual incomes of the bottom 90..."
