We’re living in two different countries

Reading the mainstream news media, I can’t help wonder if this is actually two different countries. In one country, the economy is doing swell and everyone in optimistic. In the other country, about 80 of people are unemployed on living in near poverty. Most of these people are white.

So which country is this and how can the news media give us two different descriptions of the very same country?

According to NPR;

The economy "is unlikely to slow in the short-term, and may even moderately pick up," economist Lynn Franco predicted Tuesday as the Conference Board released its latest survey on consumer confidence.

The business research group, where Franco is director of economic indicators, said its index rose to a five-year high of 81.4 in June — up from May's 74.3. The index is based on surveys of Americans.

But then according to CBS News;

Four out of 5 U.S. adults struggle with joblessness, near-poverty or reliance on welfare for at least parts of their lives, a sign of deteriorating economic security and an elusive American dream.

Survey data exclusive to The Associated Press points to an increasingly globalized U.S. economy, the widening gap between rich and poor, and the loss of good-paying manufacturing jobs as reasons for the trend…..

…..Marriage rates are in decline across all races, and the number of white mother-headed households living in poverty has risen to the level of black ones.

"It's time that America comes to understand that many of the nation's biggest disparities, from education and life expectancy to poverty, are increasingly due to economic class position," said William Julius Wilson, a Harvard professor who specializes in race and poverty. He noted that despite continuing economic difficulties, minorities have more optimism about the future after Obama's election, while struggling whites do not.

It’s not surprising that our corporate masters are getting greedy and using the political system to take most of the wealth for themselves. But what is surprising is that so many working people just don’t see that. As the second article point out poverty is growing and the differences between the classes is beginning to disappear.

It’s getting time for working people to realize they are not really a part of this economy and this country has turned its back on most of its citizens.

-សតិវ អតុ