Leaders should work for the working class

Edward Stringham’s commentary “Time to stop disparaging the wealthy,” Nov. 21, proposed that we should not disparage the mega-rich because “we should celebrate and be grateful for the efforts of those who work for the benefit of all.” Does he mean people like educators, nurses, social workers, firefighters, trash collectors, postal workers, retail employees? I doubt it.

He also suggests there is still a robust socioeconomic ladder we can climb, regardless of class, sex, race or ZIP code. Studies done at Har vard University, the Brookings Institution and the Pew Research Center confirm that socioeconomic mobilit y in the U. S. has sig nif icantly diminished over the past 20 years. Unions have been dismantled, wages have stagnated, the social safety net has been shredded, affordable housing has disappeared, and medical bill bankruptcies have g rown.

In 2011, billionaire Warren Buffet wrote, “While the poor and middle class fight for us in Afghanistan, and while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, we megarich continue to get our extraordinary tax breaks. ... My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It ’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice.”

Eight years later, with waves of “dark money” f lowing into campaign coffers helping to support gerrymandering and voter suppression, Buffet is still right. Let ’s stop disparaging the mega-rich and instead organize working people and escalate voter turnout to “hire” representatives who will support the 90 percent of us “who work for the benefit of all” to keep America great.

Ben Goldberg Albany