Romney's middle class are poor

Mitt Romney states that he worries neither about the rich nor the poor. Rather, his focus is upon the middle class. That seems to run the gamut from aerospace workers to clerks at Staples, and he keeps citing his success at Staples. I do not intend to demean the workers at Staples (or QFC or Safeway, etc.), but they are not middle-class. By in large, they are hard-working stockers, clerks, cashiers or baggers who are limited to working less than 32 hours per week and at minimum wage. They work hard and may hold down more than one job just to survive.

Working 32 hours or less means that the workers are not eligible for benefits (sick-leave, vacation and health care). Do the math: $9.04/hour x 32 hrs/week = $289.28, or approximately $15,000 if the worker could manage to work every week. That is near the national poverty level. Please explain to me how such a worker under those conditions is a member of the middle class.

We need people working at reasonable wages to make and purchase the goods made here in America. The middle class of Reagan and Clinton and Obama were people who worked the trades, had good technical skills or college educations, and made us a solid and productive country.

Romney's "middle class" is an example of our impoverished and declining nation.

Ian Robertson
Lynnwood