Happy New Year - May 2012 Lift Up the 99%

My fervent wish for 2012 is that we somehow get out of the mess of the past few years, move out of the recession, and that the working class finally gets a real break. 

• Real jobs that pay a living wage would be nice. 
• Jobs with stability for the many talented unemployed out there would be nice.
• Employers that would stop rejecting real people with real skills just because they have been unemployed for more than 6 months would be nice (yes, employers are discriminating against longer-term unemployed because there must be something wrong with them because they're unemployed - in a recession!)

Although a lot of tension and attention has been devoted to the crumbling economy, taxes, and unemployment, we are in a mess.  Our political leaders have abandoned their responsibility and better leadership is being demonstrated by unelected public figures (thanks, Max Gail, for sharing that article).  The #Occupy movement was a wake-up call and we cannot let elected officials go back to sleep. 

Moving into 2012, let us all work for peace, harmony, co-existence, & equity.  Capitalism isn't a crime, but greed at the expense of others and exploitation of workers aren't necessary for capitalism to work.  If we can strengthen the working class, help unemployed workers return to work, and use our economic strengths to ensure prosperity for future generations, we will have accomplished a lot.  I think these should be our goals for 2012 - and we should impress those goals on our elected leaders or remove them from office.

Happy New Year - here's hope for 2012

Claire