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December 13, 2004 A PROPOSAL TO MY FELLOW DEMOCRATS by John C. Raines, Chairman of the Board Americans now work more hours per day and more days per year than in any other advanced industrialized country. The average paid vacation for European workers is four weeks; for us it is twelve days. The pay differential between the average CEO in our country and the average pay of workers in that corporation is 400 to 1. The next most unequal country is Great Britain where the difference is 45 to 1. The cost of paying for basic necessities in our country (housing, food transportation, medical services, etc.) takes up 70 percent of a two-income family today. Back in 1970 a one-income family paid just 50 percent of their income for the same basics. The government has abandoned the American family. This opens the door to the Democratic party to run as the party that will in fact side with families, not just mouth "family values." What really helps the average family? It's quite simple. Better jobs, better access to adequate education and health care, better public support for maternity leave, for day care, for elder care, paying social security benefits for moms who stay home to raise young children (which is in every society and time the most important and demanding of all human work). This is happening in other countries. It should happen in ours. The Democratic party should take over the family values issue. The Republicans preach it and then betray it. Let's become once again, as we were in the past, the party that average families can know are fighting for their well being. And that means, most fundamentally, radically rethinking how to get and keep good jobs in our country. Education is not the answer. Smart people are found all over the world and many of them will work at a tenth of what it costs to live only a modestly decent life in this country. We need to do what China does so well-insist that if your product is going to sell in this country then a significant portion of that product must be made in this country. The Republican party will scream at this idea. They will shout "inflation" even as they invest their money in factories where labor is cheap and get huge profits for themselves. Fellow Democrats, we can win back this nation
beginning in two years. In four years we can
have the Presidency and a majority of both
Houses of Congress. The issue is there for
us to seize. Let our party become the truly
family friendly party of this presently so
family unfriendly government. The door is ours
to open.
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