A living wage…
Is it too much to ask?
The unions fought for you,
Many died for you
Yet now you treat them as evil.
Who does this benefit?
Look at your stagnant wage,
Feel the fear of losing your job.
Each closed door meeting brings anxiety.
There is no loyalty from above,
Dollars and cents are their gods now.
You have been weakened and betrayed,
But you don’t see it…this is capitalism.
The promised trickle has all but dried up,
Living paycheck-to-paycheck your way of life.
Whatever happened to the middle class,
The comfortable life, retirement,
It is all just a dream relegated to history,
While the upper crust bathes in their gold.
Still you cast your ballot for your own demise.
Lower taxes will not bring you comfort,
Later retirement will not bring you joy,
Minimum wage will not support you,
Healthcare vouchers will not sustain you,
Social Security will not carry you to the end.
So what is it you want?
We are being ravaged at every turn,
Still you are too blind to see it.
Watch these buffoons on stage,
Telling you they care about you…the little man?
These millionaires and billionaires don’t care about you!
They only care for themselves
And their wealthy friends that bought them.
~~ Dominic R. DiFrancesco ~~
Dom DiFrancesco 
Dom… this is perfect. My only wish is that you could read this up on the stage about half way through one of the debates… I’ll cast my vote for you… I so appreciate and enjoy the truths that need to be said while so few have the courage to say them… Thank you…
Thank you Michael, I really appreciate your kind comment. When I run for office, I will count on your vote. 🙂
It is so sad that people should not be aware of the ravages of poverty. One cannot live without a decent income.
Very true, but unfortunately many of our politicians believe that $8.00 an hour is a living wage…let them try to live off of that. Thank you so much my friend.
“Dominic R. DiFrancesco”!!! Why do I know we would have a great time talking….& I would add eating & drinking!!! It’s that Italian thing, your name, your photo, the connection. Thanks for your words here….They ARE poetry & MUSIC to my ears!!! You say more here than all my lengthy articles!!! Please go back to my excuseusforliving.com & look down the right margin of archived articles to “National Economy.” Click on it & you will see my 9 posts on the topic INCLUDING THE VERY FIRST POST OF WHY I STARTED THE WEBSITE! While I pride myself on not being pigeon holed to any topic & write on a diverse list of whatever I want to say, by necessity I have gravitated to the economy. And yet history & public policy are my real things/joys. So a “Bravissimo” to you, my compatriot! “YOU DID GOOD!” Phil
Phil, I really do think we would have a lot to talk about (over pasta and wine) as it seems that we are of like minds. Thank you for your thoughtful comment and I will check out your archived posts on the economy and thank you for pointing me to them. Be will my friend.
Dom, Right on target! So nice. I just know you are a wonderful human being. There is no better that can be said of a person. Phil
Thank you so much Phil for saying so, I like to think that I am a nice person and I can tell that you are as well…heck we are from Jersey, what more needs said. 🙂
There are those who still cares for the downtrodden. We need to keep our eyes open.
Yes there are and my eyes are open to that fact, but the people I am referring to don’t care about you or me and sadly there are far too many of them out there. Thank you my friend.
Welcome, my friend. Why would people misunderstand my care?
I certainly don’t misunderstand that you care as I’m positive that you do. I’m sorry if you thought my comment was referring to you.
No. I don’t think that way. 🙂 I’m trying to share my perspective. Hope it can comfort others.
I really hope that it does my friend, we can all use some of that. 🙂
🙂
As much as I care for the words you have spoken, they Are nationalist to our society, Dom. There are millions across the world who have a better life than they once had, even though to us it is all bedlam. Those who have taken our jobs work under horrible conditions according to our standard of living , but to them? An easy answer I would like to see, because I live in American poverty, But my situation is better than most in the world. I would appreciate any Ideas on how to separate the elected officials and big business. ): Nice piece!
Thank you William. Yes, this piece as are most of my politically oriented pieces do focus on American politics and that is intentional. Believe me I am very aware of what goes on outside of our borders, but that being said, what we do here can greatly impact this. Ultimately though we have seen our nation and political system regressing back to the days of the robber barons and where all of the wealth is concentrated at the top while the rest of the population be damned. I firmly believe that following the 2016 election we will see our economy take a devastating turn for the worse. This is not my wish at all, but what I believe will become our reality.
I hope you are wrong. I am beginning to sense a nationalist trend in our voters, though, and expect this previous momentum to reverse itself. Consumer boycotts coming? 🙂
I tend to agree with your statement although I do think just a bit of nationalism when it comes to our economy and our jobs would be a good thing. Free trade is turning out to be our downfall in my humble opinion. Thanks for the conversation William, I appreciate it. 🙂
We are on the same side my friend. 🙂
We are indeed William…thank you.
Excellent Dom. Thanks for sharing this.
My pleasure and thanks for reading my friend. 🙂
No job is secure any more. Greed sucks.
It sure does and we are the ones that pay for it.