TO THE EDITORS:

“Wake up, folks. What we are witnessing worldwide is a backlash by the people at the lower-income levels against those at the top who are hogging the world’s wealth.

“In the Middle East, people are rebelling against leaders who siphon off the country’s wealth into their own private accounts. In our country, the people are rebelling against the efforts to balance budgets by busting unions and cutting programs that serve people at lower-income levels while giving the rich huge tax breaks. The rich certainly are not sharing the pain of balancing state and federal budgets.

“Looking to the future, I see permanent high unemployment because that holds wages down, increasing profits for the rich owners and managers of big businesses. Look at India where people earn $5/day because companies can replace any worker who complains with those who would be grateful to get even that much.

“The attack on the American work force has the same objective. First they will cripple the unions. The unions are the reason most workers have benefits like paid health care, vacations and overtime premiums. We are already seeing the erosion of those benefits. Without the ability to bargain collectively, workers will be at the mercy of their employers. Workers will have to accept whatever the employers want to give them, with their only recourse being to quit and find a better employer. If you live paycheck to paycheck, that will be very difficult. You may even be forced to take a pay cut. Then, as you get older, you may be replaced by a younger worker who can be paid less. High unemployment makes all of these abuses of the working classes more probable.

“One possible solution to this mess is to reduce the normal workweek from 40 hours to 32. This would eliminate unemployment, reduce government expenditures, increase tax revenue and keep wages at a livable level. I really don’t see that happening as long as Republicans have any control in Washington, because that doesn’t serve the aims of their constituents. They even want to get rid of the minimum wage so they can further depress wages.

“As long as we let the rich avoid helping us get out of this mess, the longer the working classes will be at their mercy.”

Ken Foster, Columbia