What someone wrote on YouTube to describe a video created for Mellencamp’s song:
This song fits perfect with the Slide Show I put together!!!! The United States is a beautiful place, with many attractions!!!!!! Here you see America’s Landmarks, Cities, small towns, and everything else in between that makes up what the United States is today!!!! ENJOY!!!!!!
How Mellencamp describes the song:
“It’s really an anti-American song,” Mellencamp told Rolling Stone about “Pink Houses.” “The American dream had pretty much proven itself as not working anymore. It was another way for me to sneak something in.” http://www.songfacts.com/detai…
Mellencamp wrote the song after driving along an interstate and seeing a black man sitting in his front yard watching the traffic. He did not know whether to feel sorry for the man for what he didn’t have or glad for the man because he seemed happy.
We are being asked to work harder and longer for the same pay. We are being asked to accept that this is the way that the world works (no pun intended) and if you expect more you are somehow looking for a hand-out. Work two (or more) jobs; own your own business; shut up and get to work … that’s what we’ve been told.
I read recently that in the 1970s CEO pay was 10x an employee’s while now it is 110x. But we’re supposed to accept that as the new normal. Meanwhile …
The data presented here are from the Current Population Survey (CPS), 2013 Annual Social and Economic Supplement (ASEC), the source of official poverty estimates. The CPS ASEC is a sample survey of approximately 100,000 household nationwide. These data reflect conditions in calendar year 2012.
In 2012, the official poverty rate was 15.0 percent. There were 46.5 million people in poverty.
For the second consecutive year, neither the official poverty rate nor the number of people in poverty at the national level were statistically different from the previous year’s estimates.
The 2012 poverty rate was 2.5 percentage points higher than in 2007, the year before the most recent recession.
In 2012, the poverty rate for people living in the West was statistically lower than the 2011 estimate.
For most groups, the number of people in poverty did not show a statistically significant change. However, between 2011 and 2012, the number of people in poverty did increase for people aged 65 and older, people living in the South, and people living outside metropolitan statistical areas. http://www.census.gov/hhes/www…
We’re poor and getting poorer. Having been in the job market recently employers can demand ridiculous qualifications and pay peanuts … and get away with it because a lot of people are desperate for jobs. And no one seems to care.
How many of the next generations will not be able to afford college? College? How about food, clothing, shelter? We’re supposed to be making a better world for our children and we are failing:
18 comments