海角大神

We come together as Americans when confronting common disasters and common threats, such as occurred in Boston on Monday, but we continue to split apart economically.

Anyone who wants to understand the dis-uniting of America needs to see how dramatically we鈥檙e segregating geographically by income and wealth. Today I鈥檓 giving a Town Hall talk in Fresno, in the center of California鈥檚 Central Valley,聽where the official unemployment rate is 15.4 percent and median family earns under $40,000. The so-called 鈥渞ecovery鈥� is barely in evidence.

As the crow flies Fresno is not that far from California鈥檚 high-tech enclaves of Google, Intel, Facebook, and Apple, or from the entertainment capital of Hollywood, but they might as well be different worlds.聽

Being wealthy in modern America means you don鈥檛 come across anyone who isn鈥檛, and being poor and lower-middle class means you鈥檙e surrounded by others who are just as hard up. Upward mobility 鈥� the old notion that anyone can make it with enough guts and gumption 鈥� is less of a reality.聽

罢丑别听聽in America will become a poor adult is higher now than it was 30 years ago, and higher in the United States than in the United Kingdom, which has a long history of class rigidity.聽

聽is in now in poverty, but you wouldn鈥檛 know that in Washington, where our representatives are now busily cutting safety nets children depend on, or in many state capitals that continue to slash budgets for education and social services.

Many of America鈥檚 wealthy don鈥檛 see why they should pay more taxes to support the less advantaged because they have no idea what it means to be less advantaged, while many in America鈥檚 middle class can鈥檛 afford to pay more because their real wages continue to decline.

Our thoughts turn to Boston 鈥� as they should. But Fresno and other places like it across America remain ignored.