Sanders Warns: 'We Live, On Average, Four Years Shorter Than People In Other Wealthy Countries’

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During Friday’s ‘Fight Oligarchy’ event in McAllen, Texas, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) spoke about the technology boom and workers wage stagnation.   Fuel your success with Forbes. Gain unlimited access to premium journalism, including breaking news, groundbreaking in-depth reported stories, daily digests and more. Plus, members get a front-row seat at members-only events with leading thinkers and doers, access to premium video that can help you get ahead, an ad-light experience, early access to select products including NFT drops and more:  https://account.forbes.com/membership/?utm_source=youtube&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=growth_non-sub_paid_subscribe_ytdescript   Stay Connected Forbes on Facebook: http://fb.com/forbes Forbes Video on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/forbes Forbes Video on Instagram: http://instagram.com/forbes More From Forbes:  http://forbes.com

Transcript

00:00And I'll tell you something else about paycheck I want to ask you, and later on I'm going to ask you,

00:03I want you to talk about what it means to live paycheck to paycheck.

00:07But here's something else that we don't talk about very much in America.

00:12As a nation, despite the huge amount of money we spend on health care,

00:17we live on average about four years shorter lives than people in other wealthy countries.

00:24Got it? That's bad.

00:26You know what's even worse? In America today, if you are working class, on average,

00:33you will live seven years shorter life than the 1%.

00:40All right, somebody help me out on this one. Why is that?

00:47Why do working class people live shorter lives than people who have a lot of money?

00:53All right, all right. Somebody raise their hand here.

00:56Yes, sir.

00:57Overwork underpaid.

00:59Overwork underpaid.

01:01And what does that contribute to?

01:03Stress.

01:04All right. The key word here is stress.

01:08Yes, ma'am, do you want to jump in?

01:09Food desert.

01:10Food desert. Not having access to decent food.

01:14What else you got? Yes, ma'am.

01:18Poor access to health care.

01:20Boy, you guys hit the nail right on the head.

01:22All right. Inadequate wages.

01:26No vacations.

01:28People are overworked.

01:30Not able to retire.

01:31Not able to retire.

01:33Not able to retire.

01:33Or you add all of that stuff up.

01:40And what doctors will tell you, nobody debates this,

01:43is that when people every day are worried about how they survive,

01:51what the stress does is really have a negative impact on their bodies,

01:56on their cardiovascular system, and on their minds.

02:00Mental stress.

02:01That is the simple reality.

02:03And you add all of that stuff up,

02:05that is why working class people die seven years earlier than the wealthy.

02:16Well, that's another issue we'll get to in a minute.

02:22And people in this country today are very angry.

02:27They're angry for a lot of reasons,

02:29and sometimes they get angry at the wrong people for the wrong reasons.

02:38I want to get into that in a moment with your help.

02:42But what I want to say right now,

02:43when you talk about why people are angry,

02:46what is not widely known,

02:48or I want you to hear this one carefully,

02:50is all of you can imagine,

02:52over the last 50 years,

02:55there has been an explosion in technology,

02:58and an increase in worker productivity, right?

03:02It means that every worker here is producing a lot more

03:06than somebody in that position did 50 years ago.

03:11And yet, despite that huge increase in worker productivity,

03:17the truth of the matter is

03:19that inflation accounted for wages,

03:24weekly wages,

03:26are lower today than they were 52 years ago.

03:31Do you understand what I'm saying?

03:34So you've got this huge increase in productivity.

03:37Where is all of that increased wealth going?

03:42And the answer is

03:42that over the last 50 years,

03:46there has been a $75 trillion transfer of wealth

03:52from the bottom 90% to the top 1%.

03:57And in the midst of all of that,

04:05stagnant wages,

04:07people not being able to keep up with inflation,

04:10cost of childcare exploding,

04:13groceries exploding,

04:14that in the midst of all of that,

04:16right now,

04:18literally today,

04:19I'll be back in Washington on Monday,

04:22we'll be dealing with this,

04:23Trump has brought forward with the Republican leadership

04:26a reconciliation bill,

04:29or what he calls his big, beautiful bill.

04:32Grrrr...

04:34Grrr...

04:35...

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