straight americans, all of us are needed. for in our idea of country there is no such thing as a spare american. there is however, a growing gap of injustice in our country today. it is the gap between the strong just nation our children need for us to be and the nation we are in danger of becoming. for today, in america, 70% of us are earning the same or less than we were 12 years ago, and this is the first time that that has happened this side of world war ii. today in america, family owned businesses and farms are struggling to compete with ever
if you go to the port clinton high school now and look at parking lot, next to each other are bmw convertibles driven there by kids whose dads live in the mansions, and junkers in which the kids live because they re homeless. that kind of unbelievable contrast between rich kids and poor kids in new, and it s not only new in port clinton. it s new, really, nationwide. these larger social trends we re familiar with, the growing gap between rich people and poor people, the growing segregation of american people along class lines, those come down and affect the lives and opportunities and the resources available to kids. and the trajectory for disadvantaged kids now is so bad. they start out at this disadvantage, and then every time they stumble, that disadvantage deepens. that s exactly right. in the book, we have a whole series of what we call scissors graphs, graphs that look like this in which things are getting better for kids coming from
high school now and look at the parking lot, next to each other parked in the parking lot are bmw convertibles driven there by kids whose dads live in the mansions and junkers, gentleman loppies jalopies in which the kids live because they re homeless. that kind of unbelievable contrast between rich kids and poor kids is new, and it s not only new in port clinton. it s new, really, nationwide. these larger social trends we re familiar with, the growing gap between rich people and poor people, the growing segregation of america along class lines, those come down and affect the lives and the opportunities and the resources available to kids. and the trajectory for disadvantaged kids now is so bad. because they start out at this disadvantage and then every time they stumble that disadvantage deepens. that s exactly right. in the book our kids we have a whole series of what we call scissors graphs graphs that look like this in which things are getting better for kids
the same time cut taxes on the rich. i ve seen a lot of talk about the supposedly weak bench that the democrats have and the supposedly strong bench that the republicans is. that s a bunch of nonsense. forget about the candidates. here s what we should be talking about. there is only one party that has anything logical, data-driven, real to say about the most pressing concern that is facing this country, the massive growing gap on opportunities and outcomes between the rich and everyone else. that s what this campaign will be about, not the mini scandals not the drama, not the bench. who s got a plan that will help make the lives of ordinary people better? who weenton t just talk about two americas but work to reunite the divided pieces? that choice is already clear. that does it for the cycle. now alex wagner starts right now. will an isis loss be a win for iran? dramatic new video from the marathon bombing trial and
comparison study? well, back in the 50s, and this is based on real research almost all of the kids in my class did better than their parents. regardless of what their background was. they rose higher earned more money. it was the american dream. everybody had a fair chance a fair shot at the dream. but because of changes that have occurred in port clinton, and as it happens across america loss of manufacturing. loss of manufacturing, the growing gap, even a small town like port clinton, between rich kids and poor kids. you can drive down a kid and look to the left and you see dilapidated double wieds with a child poverty rate of 50% and look to the left on the same road and see a row of mansions along lake erie in which the kids are living completely different lives. and that means that we no longer have equality of opportunity in america. yeah it s such interesting research. what made me so sad is the