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Ryan Gardner
Professor: Sue Briggs
English 1050
17 April 2015
Corporate America vs. The People
Total personal debt in the United States is currently at 16.8 trillion
dollars, yes thats $16,877,903,000,000. To put it into perspective, if this
debt was averaged among every man, woman, and child in the United
States, each person would owe $52,627, and this is not even including the
US national debt burden of $18.2 trillion. (USdebtclock.org) When I first saw
these number I was alarmed and wanted to know more. After doing a bit
more research I found that the breakdown of personal debt is as follows:
Mortgage Debt: $13.5 trillion, Student Loan Debt: $1.35 trillion, Credit Card
Debt: $878 billion. How did our debt levels reach such an astronomical level?
While reading the articles in the text, and participating in the discussions I
have started to believe that this large amount of personal debt may just be a
symptom of a larger issue; the increasing oppression of the lower and middle
class by the upper class.
In the U.S. there is the ideal that every US citizen should have equal
opportunity to achieve prosperity and success through hard work and
determination, more popularly known as the American Dream. The great
hurdle in achieving this American Dream is that there is a large and
growing inequality between the lower and middle class of society, and the
upper class. In other words, the prosperity of the US is not being shared with

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the working class. Tax code is written with extreme favoritism for wealthy
individuals. Average income tax for the sub-$100,000 per year worker is
35%, while the capital gains tax is a mere 15% for stocks held for over 1
year. (Kertscher) I do not see it as a coincidence that billionaire investors are
treated favorably when it comes to taxes, as I see income inequality as the
greatest threat to democracy. It has gotten so out of balance that even
billionaire investor Warren Buffett has advocated for higher tax rates for
high-income tax payers.(Kertscher)
The article Worked Over and Overworked by Steven Greenhouse
discusses The Big Squeeze on the middle class worker. The article gives
examples of diminishing worker benefits. It states, Twenty-eight-year-old
John Arnold works in the same Caterpillar factory in Illinois as his father, but
under the plants two-tier contract, the maximum he can ever earn is $14.90
an hour, far less than the $25 earned by his father.(Greenhouse 405) More
now than ever there is pressure on corporations to please shareholders.
Profits are no longer shared with the worker, instead jobs and wages are cut
in order to decrease costs and increase profits in order raise share prices by
using this money for share buybacks and dividend payouts. It is a system
that is simply unsustainable because the worker is left out of the equation,
but provides insight into why the average US citizen is in so much debt.
Jamie Banks commented on a decrease in health benefits from the company
her husband works for. Jamie said, The company my husband works for is a
HUGE company, with many subsidiaries. They used to offer fantastic

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insurance benefits but their CEO decided to cut costs by switching to a HDHP
that requires employees to foot the bill for the first $3000.00 in medical
expenses every calendar year. They also no longer offer bonuses at the end
of the year, rarely give raises, all the while expecting their employees to put
in the same amount of effort as before. Jamie and her husband are not the
only ones feeling the squeeze.
The average worker is working harder than they ever have before.
Greenhouse provides some telling statistics, he says, Since 1979, hourly
earnings for 80 percent of American workers (those in private-sector,
nonsupervisory jobs) have risen by just 1 percent, after inflation. The
average hourly wage was $17.71 at the end of 2007. For male workers, the
average wage has actually slid by 5 percent since 1979. Worker productivity,
meanwhile, has climbed 60 percent.(406) In other words, people are
working harder than they ever have before, and being paid less.
These people not only work the hardest, but are also the most
educated workforce in history. As of March 2012, 30.4 percent of people over
the age of 25 hold a bachelors degree, the highest it has ever been. (PerezPena) George Washington Carver put it best saying, Education is the key to
unlock the golden door of freedom. As more and more people are seeking
education to improve their income, the cost of education has become a great
burden. In its most recent survey of college pricing, the College Board
reports that a "moderate" college budget for an in-state public college for the
20142015 academic year averaged $23,410. A moderate budget at a

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private college averaged $46,272.(collegedata.com) When looking at this

heavy price tag it is no wonder why the public has taken on $1.3 trillion
dollars in student loans. What is most troubling to me is that at the rate that
tuition is increasing in price, the middle class will eventually be unable to
afford to send their children to college.
The middle class are not the only people being abused by corporations.
Mike Daviss article Fortress Los Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space
provides some insight into just how insensitive corporate America is to the
issues the lower class is facing. The article describes the urban renaissance
that the city of Los Angeles underwent. The new city of massive skyscrapers
relies on many underpaid workers to provide service to the facilities, or as
Davis puts it, The pleasure domes of the elite Westside rely upon the social
imprisonment of a third-world service proletariat in increasingly repressive
ghettos and barrios.(Davis 290) For the lower class who are unable to
secure any type of job, and are forced to live on the streets, life has become
much more difficult. Many types of bumproof deterrents have been
implemented in the streets of Los Angeles. These deterrents include, new
barrel-shaped bus benches, which offers a minimal surface for uncomfortable
sitting while making sleeping impossible.(Davis 289) Another bum deterrent
used is overhead sprinklers which are programmed to come on at random
times during the night to soak unsuspecting sleepers. (Davis 289) This is
evidence that the corporations are not looking for solutions, but would rather
adhere to a policy of out of sight, out of mind.

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There was a time where the working conditions were much worse in
the U.S. Judy Taylor shows us murals of a time where working conditions
were very poor. The murals depict child labor, young women working in
textile mills because their families could not, or would not support them, and
worker strikes in order to improve working conditions. They are a very
effective and influential depiction of the dark past labor had in Maine.
Governor Paul LePage had the murals removed because, they didnt give a
balanced history and made business interests uncomfortable.(Taylor 436)
Taylor Staley put it best when she said in her post, The labor misuse of
citizens should not be kept a secret rather should be brought to the publics
attention to find a solution for more acceptable labor laws and treatment. I
think the difference between the governors mindset and Staleys is that the
governor has business interest in mind, and she has in workers interest in
mind. These are conditions that the worker never wishes to return to. I hope
LePage was wanting to remove the mural due to the shame of the historical
poor treatment of the workers, but business interest increasingly seems to
be whatever they can get away with to increase profit. I see a parallelism
between The History of Labor in the State of Maine, and the internment
camps in Studs Terkels The Good War. Both are infrequently discussed
because of their dark nature. I would hope that this is the reason that LePage
wanted the murals removed, because of the shameful way that the workers
were treated.

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The tug of war between corporations and the worker seem to currently
be in the favor of the corporation, but as we are reminded by Judy Taylors
mural, the working class is able to shape their destiny. We are lucky to live in
a country which has democratic processes in place to set the regulations
which affect our livelihood. Class discrimination is not going to go away, but
hopefully compromises can be made in the future to more equally distribute
wealth in our country so that we can all take part in the prosperity that we
have worked to achieve. Our constitution is written in a way to grant the
masses rights which they have in no other nation in the world. Reflecting on
the speech of Fredrick Douglass gives me perspective of the good things we
have already achieved as a nation, abolishing slavery and granting these
people their human right. Douglass said it best, Allow me to say, in
conclusion, notwithstanding the dark picture I have this day presented of the
state of the nation, I do not despair of this country.(474) I also do not
despair, because if it can happen anywhere in the world, certainly our nation
will be the one to bring back the interests to the working class.

Works Cited

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George, Diana, John Trimbur, Reading Culture Eighth Edition. Fortress Los
Angeles: The Militarization of Urban Space. Pg. 287-293. Written by
Mike Davis
George, Diana, John Trimbur, Reading Culture Eighth Edition. Worked Over
and Over Worked. Pg. 404-415. Written by Steven Greenhouse
George, Diana, John Trimbur, Reading Culture Eighth Edition. The Good
War. Pg. 485-486. Written by Studs Terkel
George, Diana, John Trimbur, Reading Culture Eighth Edition. The History of
Labor in the State of Maine. Pg. 435-439. Written by Judy Taylor

George, Diana, John Trimbur, Reading Culture Eighth Edition. What to the
Slave Is the Fourth of July? Pg. 460-475. Written by Frederick Douglass

Kertscher, Tom. Middle class pays higher tax rates than millionaires, Sen.
Tammy Baldwin says. Polotifact.com. Polotifact Wisconsin, 1 January
2015. Web. 17 April 2015.

Perez-Pena, Richard. U.S. Bachelor Degree Rate Passes Milestone.

Nytimes.com. The New York Times, 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 17 April 2015.

Unknown. What's the Price Tag for a College Education? collegedata.com.

College Data, Unknown. Web. 17 April 2015