Category Archives: The Working Class and the Economy

The Dual Economy

Posted on July 24, 2017 by

In his new book The Vanishing Middle Class, MIT economist Peter Temin provides a short and accessible take on this country’s deeply unequal economy, which he argues now represents two different Americas. The first is comprised of the country’s elite … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, The Working Class and the Economy, Working-Class Politics | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Profiting from the Working Class: How the Opioid Epidemic Echoes the Mortgage Crisis

Posted on June 5, 2017 by

For the second time in a decade, a group of Fortune 500 companies are engaged in a con game that is devastating working-class families and the communities in which they live. The first scam, which involved predatory lending and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Leo Jennings, The Working Class and the Economy, Working-Class Politics | Tagged , , | 3 Comments

Religious Liberty: (Not) For All

Posted on May 29, 2017 by

Freedom of religion is a central idea in the United States. Most descriptions of U.S. history emphasize flight from religious repression as the main motivation for colonial settlement. The U.S. Constitution enshrines the idea of freedom in the very first … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, The Working Class and the Economy, Working-Class Politics | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Predatory Lenders Making American Nightmares From American Dreams

Posted on May 1, 2017 by

Yes, Donald Trump is President, and he accomplished this upset in part by shattering the working-class firewall in long time Democratic, heartland strongholds of Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ohio. We cannot respond only with resistance.  An effective defense, in the Rust … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, Labor and Community Activism, The Working Class and the Economy | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

More than Cash: What It Really Takes to Address Poverty

Posted on April 24, 2017 by

What will it take to address poverty? If you build a school for girls in northern Nigeria or give a girl in the Philippines $2000, it might seem like you’re providing her with the things she needs to improve her … Continue reading →

Posted in Class at the Intersections, Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, The Working Class and the Economy | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Universal Basic Income: A “Social Vaccine” for Technological Displacement?

Posted on April 17, 2017 by

John Kenneth Galbraith once said that the beginnings of wisdom were to never trust an economist. Those of us that spent most of our adult lives in deindustrialized communities understood his point. As the mills and factories closed in working-class … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Issues, John Russo, The Working Class and the Economy | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Fractions within the Working Class

Posted on March 13, 2017 by

This has been a rough year.  After the election, I reposted a few articles on my Facebook wall, as did so many of my friends, about the “working-class vote.”  Did the white working-class just elect Trump?  I didn’t think so, … Continue reading →

Posted in Contributors, Guest Bloggers, Issues, The Working Class and the Economy, Working-Class Politics | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments