November 2015
Dear Professor Bartels,
I am a machinist in New Jersey and a father of two young children. For a long time I have worried about the growing divisions in society and how inequality is shaping the world my children will live in.
You have spoken out on this issue, and so respectfully I reach out to you to let my small voice be heard. If you find anything in my writing that adds to the conversation, I would appreciate your passing it on to others.
All around me, people are being dragged down by the increasing disparity in our country:
•They work more and more hours just to keep a roof over their head and feed their children.
•They juggle multiple part time jobs because corporations do not want to pay benefits.
•And they go to work sick because their company does not provide sick leave for them.
Someone is going to help us at retail stores and restaurants. Someone is going to take care of our elderly parents. Someone is going to stock our grocery store shelves. They successfully complete tasks we all require but are only rewarded with struggle and inequity.
Overall, our society is becoming more and more divided between the haves and the have nots. Resources and educational quality pool into increasingly exclusive and homogenous zip codes, while opportunity and possibility drain from increasingly segregated working class communities.
Where are the better public schools? Where are the best hospitals? Where are the safest neighborhoods? I think we all know the answer to these questions.
What working people need is a larger voice in our Democracy, but they don't have the time. They can't spare the attention. They are struggling to survive. It is almost impossible to see beyond the next month's bills, let alone the next election cycle. They are invisible and there are powerful people who want to keep them that way. I just think they should have a fighting chance.
At the end of the day it is really an issue of basic fairness. That people deserve some dignity for completing the work that society demands, a reasonable quality of life for what they contribute to our common good, and a fundamental understanding that all work has value and deserves respect.
Thank you for your time and understanding.
Sincerely,
Daniel Wasik