While attention is focused on Syria, food stamps for the nation’s poor are about to be cut. So are funds for low-income housing. And although jobs are slowly returning, the median wage continues to drop, adjusted for inflation. At the same time, both income and wealth continue to become more concentrated at the very top. A single income of one of the ten richest Americans could buy housing for every homeless person in the United States for an entire year. (Based on a typical day last winter, when over 633,000 people were homeless, and the typical monthly rental cost of a unit with single room occupancy of $558 per month.) The 400 richest Americans have more wealth than the bottom 150 million put together. But we are not talking about any of this. We are not debating about what’s happening to our nation. We are not raising the minimum wage or reforming our tax code or fixing our schools or getting big money out of politics. We are paralyzed at home, and now turning our attention to a potential quagmire abroad. This is the great tragedy of our time.
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