Working Stiffed

How the elites pretend to like the working class:

Ungar-Sargon explodes the liberal myth of a radicalised, right-leaning class of hicks intent on bringing down democracy and kick-starting a civil war. Instead, she finds a racially diverse, politically moderate working class. ‘Polarisation’, she concludes, ‘is an elite phenomenon’. She finds light amid the gloom, too. There are still good jobs to be had for people without college degrees, she notes. Skilled tradespeople can command high salaries and, in places like Nevada where hotel workers have a strong union, even cleaning staff can get great benefits. But this is not the case for most of those she interviewed. Facing exorbitant housing costs and expensive healthcare, their lives are precarious. ‘More than 80 per cent of Americans are making at least $16 an hour’, she writes, ‘yet the hallmarks of middle-class life are increasingly beyond their means, however frugally they live and however hard they work’. She notes that there are millions who have no savings and no ability to save because of the cost of living. They will never be able to afford to retire.

But their betters want to "help" them...