Category Archives: Jack Metzgar

Becky and the Grind

Posted on April 23, 2018 by

Becky and the Grind Becky’s aunt had given her $300 to catch up on her electric bill so the power would not be turned off in her apartment.  But when Aunt Millie checked with the electric company, the outstanding bills … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Issues, Jack Metzgar, The Working Class and the Economy, Working-Class Culture | Tagged , , | 5 Comments

Tax Justice and Class Warfare

Posted on February 12, 2018 by

When Trump Republicans passed the historically unpopular Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, they continued a 3-decades long GOP effort to reshape the tax code in ways that are hard to reverse.  Relying on what political scientists call path dependency, Republicans … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Issues, Jack Metzgar, The Working Class and the Economy, Working-Class Politics | Tagged , , , | 9 Comments

Social Class and Trump Voters

Posted on November 27, 2017 by

Politico’s Michael Kruse visited my hometown earlier this month to get a look at “one of the long-forgotten, woebegone spots in the middle of the country that gave Trump his unexpected victory last fall.”  Kruse concluded that “Johnstown Never Believed … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Jack Metzgar, Working-Class Politics | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Equal Opportunity Is Not Enough

Posted on September 18, 2017 by

We middle-class professionals are a crafty bunch, especially our intellectual elite.  One of our cagiest moves recently involves our expressions of concern about increasing income and wealth inequality in the U.S.  While eloquently expressing how guilty we feel about our … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Issues, Jack Metzgar, The Working Class and the Economy | Tagged , , | 2 Comments

Fear of Hygge and Working-Class Social Capital

Posted on June 19, 2017 by

One of the contenders for the Oxford Dictionaries’ “word of the year” in 2016 is the Danish word hygge (pronounced hoo-guh).  As defined by Oxford, it denotes “a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Issues, Jack Metzgar, Working-Class Culture | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

The Working Class at the Oscars

Posted on April 10, 2017 by

A scene in Denzel Washington’s movie of Fences is not in August Wilson’s original play, and it illustrates how a spate of Oscar-nominated films this year uncharacteristically reveal basic insights into working-class ways of living a life. Troy Maxson is … Continue reading →

Posted in Class and the Media, Contributors, Issues, Jack Metzgar, Understanding Class | Tagged , , , , , | 3 Comments

Every Part of Us Has Parts

Posted on January 16, 2017 by

One of my first awakenings to the cultural divide between working-class and middle-class ways of seeing and being in the world was John Helmer’s 1974 book The Deadly Simple Mechanics of Society.   Focused on a critique of American sociology, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Class at the Intersections, Contributors, Issues, Jack Metzgar, Understanding Class | Tagged , , | 7 Comments