tell my dad was so restless, i was in high school. the next morning i asked my mom, what s the matter with dad? she said, well, honey, his company just told him it was going to do away with health insurance, no health insurance. well, you know what? my dad we weren t poor. my dad made probably an average in those days, 20, 22, $25,000 a year, which was a decent salary. but he used to say, everybody s entitled to just a little bit of breathing room, just a little bit. a little bit of breathing room. you know, they know this is about dignity and respect. we built this economy from the bottom up and the middle out. i ve never seen a time, and some of you may have, beyond my colleagues in the congress and the press, you may have your masters or doctor s degrees in economics, name a time in
the facing wall. i remember one night i can tell my dad was so restless. i was in high school. the next morning, doing it with health insurance. you know what? we weren t poor. my dad probably made $25,000 a year which was decent salary. but he used to say everybody is entitled to just a little bit of breathing room, just a little bit. a little bit of breathing room. they know this about respect, it s about building the economy from the bottom up in the middle out. i ve never seen a time and some of you may be have in congress or the press may have your masters or doctorate degrees in economics, may be a single time
for example, a boy raised in a low-income family in my native bucks county can expect to earn $4,130 more in annual income compared with his counterparts in the other analyzed counties nationwide. we weren t poor, before my mom sold real estate, she was a secretary and my dad was a guidance counselor, we were decidedly middle class. in my county there was an increase in average annual income for boys in middle income families compared with our counterparts nationwide. the combination of good schools with better test scores, intact families, and civic engagement provided a backdrop for climbing the economic ladder. economists justin wolfers commenting on the new data told me place matters, neighborhoods have profound effects on kids and that should be something that policy makers really put their eye on. my mom, the realtor? would probably express it differently. she would probably say
we re envy. it s job envy, it s wealth envy, that we don t dream. my mother believed and my father believed that if i wanted to be president of the united states, i could be. i could be v vice president. my mother and father believed that if my brother or sister wanted to be a millionaire, they could be a millionaire. my mother and father dreamed as much as any rich guy dreams! look, i stead yesterday and i will say it more calmly today. [ laughter ] i don t think these guys understand us. and i m including us because we come from the same kind of background. we weren t poor. i wasn t joe biden hard scrap pell kids coming out of lines of scranton with a lunch bucket in my hand. i was just a normal middle class kid with a father with a high school education and worked like hell. resenting the fact that there is class warfare being thrown around in this discussion.
and i will say it more calmly today,. [ laughter ] i don t think these guys understand us, and i m including us because we come from the same kind of background. and we weren t poor. i wasn t joe biden hard scrap pell kid coming out of lines in scranton in w. a lunch bucket in my hand. i was just a normal, middle class kid with a father with a high school education and worked like hell. we were talking about sort of taking the temperature where the campaigns are at this point. you have got vice president biden and, you know, the obama campaign really going on the attack, the screaming, the yelling, and the attack ads against mitt romney. meantime you have mitt romney releasing his out of the general election. all about moving forward. what am i going to do from day one if and when i get elected? keystone pipeline, things like that. they are highlighting a look at that ad on day one. he also yesterday was up in new hampshire standing in front of this bridge, which of