As an American, I love America and I appreciate the economic opportunity it has offered me. However, our children and grandchildren will not have the same financial opportunities if our country continues down its current road of economic decline. Washington political leadership has led and is leading America into economic and financial ruin.

In the April 21 edition of the Greenville Journal, Doug Greenlaw asserts that workers and working families should stop worrying about the war on the middle class. He says, “Be happy, don’t worry.” That’s like calling the rain sunshine, because the data reflects a very different picture than what Mr. Greenlaw paints.

On Household Debt and Unemployment

The average working family doesn’t own any stock, so the white-hot stock market doesn’t help them at all. Low interest rates don’t help the average family either. Currently they are suffering from historically high household debt because their jobs are being sent to foreign countries (i.e., they are being outsourced) and their replacement jobs pay on average 40 percent less. These families would struggle to pay their principle debt, even if their interest rate were zero.

Low employment numbers are due to the change that Republicans made to the unemployment index, plus the fact that the unemployment figure does not count millions of workers whose unemployment benefits have run out, nor those who have dropped out and are no longer looking for work (i.e., the discouraged worker). Nor does it take into account people who are working part-time – less than forty hours per week with no benefits.

According to government data, the country ended 2005 with fewer private-sector hours worked than that of any time since January 2001. Most of the jobs being created don’t pay a living wage because they are low-paying service industry jobs.

Since January 2001 only 1.5 million net, new private-sector jobs were created. From 1993 to 1996, 100 million new jobs were created. The current job figures are the worst since 1939.

If you take the so-called “Bush Recovery” since January 2003, the data claims that a net of 4.5 million new private-sector jobs were created. However, compared to the 1997 to 2000 time frame, they fall short, because then 12 million jobs were created as opposed to the more recent 4.5 million reported. One of the most alarming statistics on the current job numbers is that nearly one million of the 4.5 million jobs created would keep a family of four 40 percent below the poverty line.

On Wal-Mart Wages and Household Wealth

Mr. Greenlaw says wages and household wealth are increasing. However, the data does not substantiate his point. In fact the data says wages are not increasing. Median household income has declined for five consecutive years, according to the Source for Jobs and Wages (Bureau of Labor Statistics).

On National Debt

The fiscal deficit is not in line historically at all – it is the worst ever. It is historically high, and as a result, we Americans owe $8.1 trillion in debt. This puts America in a very dangerous position because the debt, in large measure, is financed by China and Asia. This means that China and Asia can cause our economy to collapse overnight by refusing to finance our debt. They also control our ability to go to war because they manufacture many of the high-tech components of our military equipment.

On High Gasoline Prices

The average man on the street knows gas prices are rigged and knows that such high-dollar gas is hurting him and small businesses, which are the backbone of the South Carolina economy. The one million workers whose income keeps them 40 percent below the poverty line are decimated by high gasoline prices, as are many small businesses.

Of all the businesses in South Carolina, 96 percent are small, which means they employ 100 people or less. High gasoline prices hurt small businesses’ efforts to create jobs. There is no market-based reason for gasoline prices to be at historically high numbers. It’s easy to manipulate the numbers and say gasoline prices aren’t too high. That’s because the richest one percent don’t have any need to care about the price of gasoline.