The United States has suffered significant job losses, and the gulf between rich and poor is widening. Our people are unaware of simple economic principles. We have bought the concept that workers and consumers are different groups, and we no longer understand that we make things and do things for each other, trading our labor with each other for the things we need. We somehow believe that people somewhere else in the world are the workers making us cheap stuff and that our good jobs are going to come from somewhere else. Good jobs are continuing to leave our communities. Labor unions, the most valuable resource for supporting the rights and interests of working people, are losing ground. Public assets are being privatized. Capital has been uprooted; it can move anywhere in the world in milliseconds. We continue to hold onto a dream that says we can become wealthy overnight, all on our own, using up natural resources, polluting if we need to, using the labor of others, using the good will and resources of the communities we profess to serve. More...