A lot of folks are voting Republican this November in frustration with stalled wage growth.

Yet Democrats voted for — and Republicans voted against:

Projects to build and repair roads, bridges and schools — which create good-paying jobs

Raising the minimum wage

Equal pay for women

Union-friendly bills — which pressure nonunion companies to raise wages, too

But a Democratic President can’t sign a bill that a Republican House won’t pass. And that a Democratic Senate can’t pass either, because they need 60 votes to avert a Republican filibuster.

Why vote to lower your wages?

So why do people vote against their interests?

1) Politics are boring

You’d rather watch “Modern Family” than “Washington Week,” right? Who wouldn’t?

So you figure, just vote out the President’s party. Even though you actually need MORE Dems, not less, to raise wages.

2) The rich talk you into voting for the rich

But also, wealthy interests like Koch Industries fund think tanks that create messages — funneled through Rush Limbaugh and FOXNews — like this:

The wealthy are the job creators. Take money from them, and you take away jobs.

Yet we’ve been giving money to the rich for years, and the middle-class is shrinking.

And that’s because, to quote Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor and current UC Berkeley professor:

The job creators are America’s vast middle-class.

When the middle-class have good paying jobs, they spend more at the movies, Macy’s, and Olive Garden. And then Olive Garden hires workers. And so does Macy’s and the local theater. And then the new hires spend more money. And businesses do more hiring…

…And the economy spirals upward.

Robin Hood in reverse

But we’ve taken the opposite track, giving to the rich and taking from the middle — aided by corporate campaign contributions (aka legalized bribery).

CEOs know that more money in worker pockets leaves less in their own.

Over the years, wealth has redistributed away from the middle-class up to the rich:

Most of us think some inequality is good to reward hard work. But check out the graph below.

The bottom line shows what people think IDEAL wealth distribution would be.

The next line up shows what people THINK IS REALITY.

And the top line shows actual REALITY.

Still, plenty of folks will vote to lower their wages next Tuesday.

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