Even in the face of the so-called Recovery, poverty and inequality are getting worse in our country, and more wealth and power is flowing straight to the top. According to Paul Buchheit over at Alternet, this is the end result of winner-take-all capitalism, and this destruction of the working class has all been by design.

Paul explained that more and more Americans are viewed as “disposable” by those at the top. The banksters and the corporate elite have used a six-step process to turn the working poor into nothing more than commodities or criminals that can be used and tossed aside like garbage.

As Paul Buchheit explained, first they start by depleting our wealth, which was accomplished by destroying our pensions and decreasing the value of millions of our homes. After that, the corporate elite striped away our income by slashing wages and keeping them low for everyone except those at the top.

Next they took away our homes with illegal foreclosures and rising rent prices, which meant more and more of us ended up on the street. Then they hit our wallets with everything from banking fees to traffic fines to rising interest rates to make sure that we never had a chance to get ahead. And, those fines lead to the next step, when the poor were turned into criminals over unpaid fees and court costs for trivial offenses.

Lastly, they made us desperate by making our children suffer. About half of all food stamp recipients are kids, which means that millions of parents are willing to take demeaning work just to survive.

This systematic destruction has taken decades to accomplish, but that doesn't mean that it can't be reversed. It won't be easy, but we can take back our economy and make it work for all of us.

No American deserves to feel disposable and it's up to us to fight for a future in which we are valued as more than just a commodity.