Read our latest collection: Regaining Our Balance: How to Right the Wrongs of Globalization
Working Class
Coming Apart in the Hoosier State Share This
American Made: What Happens to People When Work Disappears, by Farah Stockman (Random House, 432 pp., $28) Farah Stockman’s new book, American Made: What Happens to People When Work Disappears, documents the closure and relocation of an Indianapolis Rexnord bearing plant to Mexico and Texas. Stockman, a New York Times reporter, was assigned to cover […]
When Work Doesn’t Seem to Pay Share This
Every day is a struggle when you’re living in poverty. You never know when you might lose your next meal or a place to live. You never know if something unexpected will come around the corner and knock you down, and how you’d find the strength to get back up again. I never had an […]
Moving Beyond Surviving to Thriving Share This
There are highs and lows in everything, and many of us experience both. We are all just one decision or one missed paycheck away from seeing a different side of life. That should be humbling for us all. But too often people assume the worst about people in difficult circumstances. I’ve been faced with an […]
Our Policies Are Failing Working Mothers Share This
When I was in my 20s, I was confident I’d be a stay-at-home parent if I had children—I simply didn’t give the alternatives much thought. But sometimes life goes in different ways than you expect. I got married in November 2019 at age 33. Three months later, in February 2020, we had a surprise positive […]
Making It Easier to Make Ends Meet Share This
6 a.m. is much too early for this tired mama. But nonetheless, I hear that little pitter-patter of onesie-covered feet coming down the hall into our room. With a soft “Mom, can I have a banana?” my day begins, whether I’m ready for it or not. A few minutes later, my husband is out the […]
How Essential Are the ‘Email Job’ Caste? Share This
Despite the impact of “Stupid-19,” life rolls on in a very essential fashion for myself and many other workers. In my case, I work in energy distribution, and here in the cold northeast, the “propane must flow” if homes were to be kept warm this past winter, and some level of comfort is to be […]
Escape from the Working Class Share This
Discussions about policies to help the multiracial American working class majority as a whole typically take a detour into the completely unrelated subject of how to help individuals escape from the working class. Helping as many individuals escape from working-class occupations as possible is the goal of both the conventional center-left and the conventional center-right. […]