Saturday, July 14, 2018

America's invisible working class

 The average real weekly earnings of all production and nonsupervisory workers remained $312.18 in early 2018 compared to $315.44 in 1972, but have in fact been falling over the past year. 

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the real wages (a metric that takes inflation into account) for workers in production and nonsupervisory positions fell from $22.62 in May 2017 to $22.59 in May 2018.

According to the Federal Reserve’s Survey on the Economic Well-Beingof U.S. Households in 201740 percent of adults said they would be unable to handle an unexpected $400 expense without borrowing the money or selling something. 

The working class has always had it rough in the United States. It has had to struggle to the limit for every crumb it has ever gotten. Racial divisions have always been a detriment. Labor history here has been the most violent of any industrial nation. American mythology about the ‘land of opportunity’ is powerful even as economic mobility is in decline. The system is currently designed for low wage jobs and the almost impossibility of forming a union. 

Protests with a working class theme are largely nonexistent. This appears to be the case in the country as large. Intersectionality seems to about everything except the working class. Protesting the names of buildings on campus or the existence of statues bring history to light but ultimately are displays of radical attitudes not radical politics.

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/07/13/the-invisible-class-workers-in-america/

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