❗Let's close the gap: We still need your help to raise $40,000 by April 1. Donate now

The road of recovery

Kai Ryssdal Jul 25, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

The road of recovery

Kai Ryssdal Jul 25, 2013
HTML EMBED:
COPY

This is day two of President Obama’s economic road show. Jacksonville, Fla., was today’s stop. His message is for Congress — even though he’s talking, in theory, to “real people” as he gets out and about.

We figured it’d be a good idea to check in with a “real” person we know and talk to from time to time: Trucker Don Holzschuh. We got him the way we usually do, on a cell phone off the side of a highway somewhere. This time, he was in Charles City, Iowa.

Obama spoke in Illinois yesterday about the economy and the middle class, but Holzschuh says he wasn’t impressed.

“I liked the campaign speech — that’s all it was. It was kind of disappointing,” he says.

Holzschuh says he’s not seeing the economy getting better. Three stores he delivers to on his route went out of business, which means his wages are going down and he’s feeling the pinch.

“It’s the same old same old … I hate to say this, the people up at top, including the president — they don’t know anything about work, about what working people are going through, the middle class,” he says. “They just don’t understand what work is.”

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.