We live in a society that generally looks down on working class people. Not all working class people, equally, though, as not everyone who sells their labor is culturally or socially in the same class. A professional athlete making tens of millions of dollars a year can’t really be counted in the same social class as a factory worker making $50K a year. That being said, very, very few people get rich by earning a wage. Generally speaking, if you want to get rich you have to have access to capital.

And getting rich is the goal. One’s position in the social hierarchy is closely tied to their wealth and income. For this reason, there’s a strong incentive to NOT do work that doesn’t pay a lot. Unfortunately for all of us, much of that work is absolutely essential for the functioning of any modern society. So, there’s a disconnect. The incentives are skewed, away from some of the most essential work and toward some of the least essential work. I think the long term effects of this could be disastrous, as we see more and more shortages of workers in essential fields.

But fear not, the capitalists have anticipated this and they have a solution: immigrants. Just bring people in from other countries to do the essential yet low wage, low status work. I don’t really think that’s a solution at all, and is more or less just delaying the inevitable.

The ladder is getting pulled up on a lot of people.

It’s true, I am not ok

Working class American men ferociously oppose any attempts to address this. Is there a name for this particular form of stockholm syndrome?

I read this as I’m forced to work a 6th day this week. When do I get a chance at life? I’m in my mid 30s and never had a job that was both good and payed enough to live on.

Good news lads, you’re not “working class” if you have a college degree according to the rubric.

What 1960s bullshit is this? People with degrees might earn more but many are cuffed and strangled by loan debt. There is a Far Side I believe that has a panhandler and various folks passing him on the street with “net worth” bubbles over all of them and the panhandler is far ahead as he has no debt. Yes, it can work out that you finally get your college paid off and then have accelerated earnings, but the timeline has massively increased or even made indefinitely unachievable as MBAs started running institutions that formerly focused on education instead turned to egotistical expansion projects and luxurioxation of student experiences.

In a country where “at will” is the standard employment arrangement in 44/50 states, where layoffs have and increasingly do happen regularly with no notice, where there is anemic unemployment in most states that kicks citizens when they’re down…why the hell would anyone want to go to college and sign a multi decade, non-dismissable in bankruptcy debt contract? The same for housing. How are you supposed to feel confident in a 30-year mortgage when you get laid off ever 5-10 years?

I will completely agree, those who do not go to college often have even worse jobs, more physically brutal and dangerous jobs, but fuck.

We’re all working class if we have to work. Degree or not.

The article is SO close to figuring it out, but all it does is list symptoms and not causes.