Why Some White People Hate the Public Option:

Unemployment among African Americans is running at 15.1 percent, compared to 8.1 percent for whites. Within six months, estimates indicate that 40 percent of African Americans will have experienced some form of unemployment or underemployment. (See Barbara Ehrenreich and Dedrick Muhammad's Op-Ed in today's New York Times.)

Whites, like those represented by Joe (not his real name) Wilson of South Carolina, hate the idea that their tax dollars might provide health care for black folk. Demagogues, like Wilson, have been playing whites and blacks against one another for centuries now, using one group to keep the other in a submissive state that allows the demagogues to retain power.

Note that the average income for the 90 percent of the population who constitute the working class in the U. S. has remained the same today as it was during the first Reagan administration in 1983, when adjusted for inflation.

When economists talk about America's wonderful productivity, this is precisely what they mean. The American worker works harder and longer while earning less or, at best, no more for his sweat. In the meantime, those at the top of the pyramid continue to grow richer, granting themselves huge bonuses even as they bankrupt the country.