Dear Editor:

Since the 1980s politicians have been promising that tax reduction and deregulation will bring us prosperity. Yet wage earners are not better off. The average wages have remained flat since the 1980s while the ratio of CEO to worker pay rose from 42:1 in 1982 to 354:1 in 2012. People living below poverty level went from 29 million in 1980 to 48 million in 2014.

In 1980, 38 percent of workers had traditional pensions but now only about 17 percent of workers are covered. The per capita healthcare cost in 1980 jumped from $1,106 to $8,508 in 2011 as nonprofit hospitals and mutual insurance companies have been privatized and profit motivated. The average tuition and fees of public four-year colleges soared from $2,119 in 1980 to $7,600 in 2010 as states cut budgets.

Bankruptcy filings rose from 1.2 per 1,000 to 5.4 per 1,000 in 2004 at which time business friendly politicians made it harder for American workers to file for bankruptcy.

Over the last 40 years we have witnessed a vast restructuring of our economy. Wealth has been redistributed away from the working class and concentrated at the top tiers of the economic elite. Money is power and we are well on the road to becoming a plutocracy.

Let’s face it; business friendly politicians have broken their promise to workers and consumers. The idea that if you work hard and play by the rules, you will be able to earn a comfortable living is dead.

Gov. LePage and Rep. Hawke have both contributed to this trend of taking away from the wage earner and giving to the wealthy elite. More deregulation and tax breaks are not the solution; they are the problem.

The key to fixing the problem is cleaning up the way we fund election campaigns. Special interest money is warping election discourse to favor of profits over family and community life. Politicians who use Clean Election funding tend to be less influenced by big money. We need more family friendly people in office like our Sen. Chris Johnson who works hard to protect the working and middle class.

Fred W. Nehring

Boothbay