Cautionary tale

EYES WIDE OPEN

- IRIS GONZALES

Much has been said about the results of the US presidential election, but the best post-mortem comes from Bernie Sanders. Says the progressive Senator from Vermont: "It should come as no great surprise that a Democratic Party which has abandoned working-class people would find that the working class has abandoned them.

"First, it was the white working class, and now it is Latino and Black workers as well. While the Democratic leadership defends the status quo, the American people are angry and want change. And they're right.

"Today, while the very rich are doing phenomenally well, 60 percent of Americans live paycheck to paycheck, and we have more income and wealth inequality than ever before. Unbelievably, real, inflation-accounted-for weekly wages for the average American worker are actually lower now than they were 50 years ago.

"Today, despite an explosion in technology and worker productivity, many young people will have a worse standard of living than their parents. And many of them worry that Artificial Intelligence and robotics will make a bad situation even worse.

"Today, despite spending far more per capita than other countries, we remain the only wealthy nation not to guarantee health care to all as a human right, and we pay, by far, the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs. We, alone among major countries, cannot even guarantee paid family and medical leave.