As we celebrate a day that honors our political birth as a nation, it is useful to think about the promise of the American Dream. Can any child grow up to be President? Is this a country (or a world) of true opportunity?
Common Dreams offers a speech by Canadian activist Maud Barlow, who considers the impact of social and economic inequality in a speech rebroadcast by Democracy Now. Too often American want to ignore this subject. We boil it down to an individual level and talk about what people deserve. Barlow casts the debate in a different light. Working people in America need to consider this message even if they are going to disagree with it.
Postscript: Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, writing in the Nation, considers how inequality is affecting the economy in the U.S. He compares our current situation to similar dynamics that caused the great Depression.
