Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says Americans already work longer hours than employees in most other countries and shouldn’t be forced to “work even longer hours than they currently do.”
Sanders, a self-described democratic socialist, was quick to jump on comments made earlier this week by Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush, who said Americans should work longer hours.
“The sad truth is that, because the middle class has declined over the last 40 years, while almost all new income and wealth has gone to the people on top, Americans already work the longest hours of any people in the Western industrialized world,” the Vermont senator said Thursday in a shot at Bush.
“What we need now is an economy that provides decent wages and income for the middle class, not demands that people work even longer hours than they current do,” he added.
Sanders says America’s problem is not work ethic but income inequality.
“Gov. Bush does not seem to understand what is happening in our economy today,” Sanders said.