When it comes to talking about the problems facing Middle America, Senator Bernie Sanders (D-VA) doesn’t mince words. On his Web site is a page entitled “The Collapse of the Middle Class.” How did he come to speak in such stark terms?

It all started when Sen. Sanders put an invitation on his Web site inviting his constituents to share their experiences in the current economy. The results shocked him. “I expected a few dozen replies,” he writes. “I was amazed, therefore, when my office received over 600 responses from all across the state, as well as some from other states.”

The Senator then took some of the letters and compiled them into an e-booklet.

Here are the conclusions he drew
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The National Review has come out with glowing praise for John McCain's choice of Sarah Palin as a running mate. No great surprise. But interestingly, the ultraconservative journal frames the election in terms of middle class issues, even "reforms of taxes and health care geared to the middle class."

The big question: will these issues merely be considered "themes" or "messages" with which to court the middle class, or will the GOP duo genuinely address them in their policies?
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Rich Manhattanite elites wanted to tax the people who work for them for the privilege of commuting to work. Mayor Bloomberg (who’s one of them) was all for it. Fortunately, the proposal was defeated in Albany, New York’s state capital. Chalk one up for the middle class this time.
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At least one element of the Democrats’ strategic plan to win the presidency this November is no secret: appeal to the middle class. Candidate Barack Obama is already using the tagline “middle class first” in TV ads. And as the Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel reports, the middle class theme is consistently being stressed at the Democratic National Convention.

There’s no question that the Democrats are doing a far better job than the Republicans of sounding pro-middle class these days. But is their newfound love of the middle class “for real”? It’s a mixed bag.
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On both sides of the globe, it’s an open secret that thousands of U.S. jobs have been moved to low-wage countries, especially India. Here’s what the jobs look like when they arrive there:

And this is what is left behind in the U.S.:

Now, the people reaping the really big profits in India (not the employees themselves, but their bosses) are no fools. They know that the U.S. is a democracy, and that an election is right around the corner. Are they afraid that working Americans will assert themselves at the polls, and elect candidates who might attempt to rein in the permanent elimination of American jobs through outsourcing?

Apparently not. They know how our political system works, and that our ruling elites have no intention whatsoever of standing in the way of globalization. But they’ve expressed resentment that when hired as consultants inside the U.S., they sometimes have no choice but to hire American workers for American jobs.
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