Obama vs. McCain: Progressive Voter Guide to the Economy

AlterNet. Posted October 9, 2008.

Download this Voter Guide as a .PDF

A Gallup poll released this week showed that a majority of Americans -- 53 percent -- are angry about the financial crisis. And 41 percent are afraid. The system, Americans believe, has failed them.

It only takes a glance at the morning news -- or a look at rising food and gas prices -- to see that these fears and frustrations are not without good reason. Every day, more and more people lose their homes and their health care and see their retirement funds erode. Or rather, they watch as these things get taken from them.

It's infuriating to watch and painful to experience, and it's understandable to be mad as hell. It's OK because when a large enough number of people get angry enough, that's when things start to change.

So, our question to you is, Are you mad enough yet? Because this crisis is about all of us. Are you sure your 401K is secure? Do you know how many of your tax dollars are being spent in Iraq -- a country that's sitting on an $80 billion surplus? Have you considered how you'll pay for your health care if Medicare goes broke?

The answers to these questions aren't pretty. Fortunately, Nov. 4 gives us a chance to change things.

But first we have to know where the candidates stand on the issues that matter the most, like the economy, the environment, health care, immigration and reproductive justice. It's no small task to get reliable information on anything, let alone politics, in an age of campaign attack ads, media bias and outright corruption. That's why AlterNet has put together some handy election guides to help you learn what you need to know about Barack Obama and John McCain before you make a trip to the ballot box. The guides aren't meant to be exhaustive, but they do cover a lot of ground. For the next two weeks, we'll be rolling out an election guide each day, starting today, with the economy.

We hope they're helpful, and we want to hear what you think. Let us know in the comment boards or by e-mailing us at feedback@alternet.org. -- The Editors

Election Guide to the Economy

The country is in a unique moment in its economic history, facing a deep, structural energy crisis, stagnant wages for most, and spiraling costs for health care, education and food.

The housing market isn't expected to hit bottom until the middle of next year, and the fallout from the housing crash now threatens the global economy -- so much so that on Sept. 20, the Bush administration proposed an unprecedented bailout of many of the biggest players on Wall Street, which came on the heels of the government's multibillion-dollar rescues of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and AIG.

There's now a consensus among economists that we have entered a recession. It marks the first time in the post-war era that the country has entered into a downturn before median family incomes had fully recovered from the previous recession. Over the past business cycle, poverty increased by more than 10 percent, and the number of people with employer-based health care dropped by about 8 percent.

The past year has been especially painful for America's working majority. In August, companies' payrolls shrank for the eighth consecutive month, resulting in a five-year high in unemployment.

Whoever ends up occupying the White House in January 2009 will be faced with the epic task of restoring Americans' sense of economic security. What will the next president do about energy? About the mortgage meltdown? What kind of trade policies will he put into place?

Read below for the answers. We've compiled these brief issue overviews to help you make an informed choice in November.

1. SPIRALING INEQUALITY AND ASSAULTS ON UNIONS

The past three decades have produced a historic concentration in American wealth. Economists estimate that 80 percent of the country's inflation-adjusted income growth since Ronald Reagan was elected has gone to the top 1 percent of the income ladder, and the incomes of all but the top 10 percent have actually declined since 1973.

A large body of data across different countries finds a strong correlation between the portion of the work force that's organized into "collective bargaining units" -- unions -- and wage inequality, and that's true in the United States, where the decline in unionization since the 1970s has corresponded with a dramatic increase in inequality.

Slightly less than 10 percent of the private sector work force is organized, but, according to the American Dream Survey (PDF) -- a study of non-managerial wage earners who make up about 80 percent of the working population -- "most American workers believe joining a union can help them achieve the American Dream," and 59 percent would be inclined to join a union if they were protected from retaliation from employers.

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