BY SHARON MARTIN

It doesn’t matter how clever or even necessary your product is if you don’t have the workers who can build it.

You can send your manufacturing to Asia or buy robots. But if American workers are out of a job, who is going to buy your product?

Whether conservatives want to believe it or not, the economy depends on an educated, healthy workforce, not on people just scrambling to get by.

Without workers, no wealth is made. Without consumers, corporations don’t prosper. If wages are so low that workers can’t afford goods, manufacturers lose. So does the U.S. Treasury.

You can’t keep cutting taxes on upper incomes and expect to make up the shortfall with fees on the already cash-strapped middle class. What happens when there is no more middle class?

Comedians and pundits alike made fun of the Democrats’ rollout of their new slogan. Maybe it wasn’t catchy, but it captured the spirit of the party. Democrats know that you can’t have social justice without a strong economy.

People are the economy. Democrats need to make this clear. Here are some talking points:

1. Supply-side economics doesn’t work. Cutting taxes doesn’t generate growth for anyone but the folks at the very top.
2. Unions protect workers. They are the voice of the workers. Robber barons didn’t like them. Neither does the GOP.
3. In a capitalistic country, the middle class is the goose. When the goose is dead, there are no more golden eggs.
4. Austerity doesn’t make the country great; it makes the citizens desperate.
5. Desperate people are less productive and more dangerous.
6. If the job is necessary to the economy, the wage should be sufficient to feed and house a family.
7. The taxes workers pay should provide for the care and well being of the workers.
8. Building up the military while slashing the domestic budget doesn’t make us safer. It just creates conflict on two fronts.
9. A strong military, well funded, is essential, but constant war, cold or otherwise, will bankrupt a country.

The wellbeing of citizens should be the No. 1 issue on any party’s agenda. This requires investment. If we can’t afford education, health care, national parks, scientific research, and art, we need to raise revenue. A healthy, educated workforce making decent wages will refill the treasury.

This is how you make America great again.

– Sharon Martin lives in Oilton, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer