Democrats' model works better for middle class

In December 2007 the Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan group, did an in-depth study on the great income disparity created by the Reagan administration and therefore the whole conservative ideology that spurred off that idea.

Sam Pizzigati at Alternet.org said this of the CBO study: "Let's compare Americans at the top to Americans in the middle. Between 1979 and 2005, the average income of America's statistical middle class — the 20 percent of Americans in the exact middle of the U.S. income distribution — rose, according to the CBO figures, a mere 15 percent. That's less than 1 percent a year."

Pizzigati is not giving his opinion regarding the middle class here; he is giving the figures stated by the CBO.

Here is what David Rosenberg (letter, "Reagan helped, not hurt, as family income grew," Oct. 23) pointed out as success of Reaganomics: "After Reagan's economic policies took effect (1982-89), family incomes rose 11 percent, from $37,868 in 1981 to $42,049 in 1989."

So if his research states an 11 percent increase for families, one has to wonder where that figure came from.

I believe his figures do not specifically target middle-class America, but America as a whole.

Look at the CBO numbers for the top 1 percent of earners: "Americans in the overall top 1 percent, the 2007 CBO data showed, did quite well in the Reagan era's first quarter-century. Their average incomes, after taking inflation into account, essentially tripled, rising 201 percent," Pizzigati said.

I understand his rebuttal letter wanted to paint my research as flawed or misleading, but all we need to do is look around within our lives and compare 1980 to 2007(pre-financial collapse). The demand for a two-income household just to maintain the middle-class lifestyle has increased extravagantly.

If the Republicans were right and supply-side economics worked, we should still be able to maintain a household on one income, regardless of inflation.

Since FDR and until Reagan we had demand-side economics, and our economy grew without the help of economic "bubbles." Today and since the advent of supply-side economics, more people are working longer hours and/or are forced to have two jobs to have the same "luxuries" as our parents.

In my view, we learn from the past, and what has worked and what hasn't. So far the Democrats have a stronger historical record regarding economic policies. Let's trust them on their record.

Raymond M. Medeiros Jr.

Dartmouth

The writer is chairman of the Democratic Town Committee.

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