Why New Jersey Needs Bernie Sanders [View all]

[cui bono]

Published on Thursday, June 02, 2016 by Common Dreams

Why New Jersey Needs Bernie Sanders

by Elizabeth Weill-Greenberg

Our country has fallen into a tailspin of poverty and inequality. In my home state of New Jersey our poverty rate is the highest it’s been in 50 years. Since 1980, only New York and Connecticut have outpaced the growth of New Jersey’s income inequality. Almost one-third of New Jerseyans are struggling to afford basic necessities. Like many Americans they juggle which bills to pay and which to skip: rent, utilities, food, medication. More than one million people in our state don’t have enough food.

Finding affordable housing is the Achilles heel for many New Jersey residents in a state that has the sixth-highest housing costs in the nation. A New Jersey minimum wage worker would have to work 18 hours a day to afford a two-bedroom apartment. The average renter in Cumberland County earns about $10.50 an hour in an area where a fair market two-bedroom rents for $1129 a month; this means that an average renter who is working full-time is putting more than half their income towards rent.

In New Jersey - as in the rest of our country - more and more have less while less and less have more.

This type of rampant deprivation isn’t because our country is poor. Quite the contrary, our country is one of the richest in the world; it’s just criminally unequal. Nationally, the top one-tenth of one percent owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90%. In New Jersey, the average income of the top 1% - those earning over $1.5 million a year - is 27 times greater than the average income of the bottom 99%.

And at this moment, at this juncture between despair and hope for our communities, Senator Bernie Sanders has intervened. Throughout his career - whether as mayor, Congressman or Senator - he has worked to support and enact progressive policies to stem the exponential growth between the haves and have-nots; his efficacy has earned him the nickname the “Amendment King.” His presidential platform, an extension of his life’s work to further economic and racial justice, proposes extending certain fundamental protections and opportunities to every American:

more at link:
http://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/06/02/why-new-jersey-needs-bernie-sanders

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