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Subscribe to Working-Class Perspectives - Working-Class Perspectives offers weekly commentaries on current issues related to working-class people and communities. Contributors discuss a variety of issues, from what class means to how it intersects with race and gender to how class is shaping American politics. We welcome relevant comments of 500 words or less.
For questions or comments about this blog, e-mail Sherry Linkon. For assistance with news stories about working-class politics and culture, call or e-mail John Russo, 330-207-8085. Categories
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The State of the Working Class
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Tag Archives: Class and economics
Which Side Are You On? Four Facts and Two Promising Prescriptions for Dampening Inflation
As mine owners and their goons terrorized striking miners and their families during the Harlan County Coal wars in 1931, Florence Reece penned the iconic labor song, “Which Side Are You On.” It pleads for unity and collective resistance. As … Continue reading
How Government Statistics Define the Stories of the Working Class
One of my favorite media criticism works is British journalist and media professor Brian Winston’s “On Counting the Wrong Things.” He argues that the categories we use to count can themselves lead to misleading conclusions. Deciding to count the number … Continue reading
Biden and Social Wages
If Biden’s American Family Plan becomes law as he proposed it, my grand-niece Harri will finally have a “modest yet adequate” standard of living based on a new commitment from the federal government to provide social wages. Harri is a … Continue reading
The Politics of Pensions: No Bailout for You
On December 24 last year, the New York Times reported that a multi-billion-dollar bailout of the United Mine Workers Health & Retirement Fund which was slated to go broke in 2023 had been rolled into the $1.4 trillion bi-partisan spending … Continue reading
Is ‘Doing Your Best’ Ever Enough When You Are Working Class?
In 2016, I wrote about how Ken Loach’s film I, Daniel Blake illustrated the impact of the draconian British welfare system on working-class people. Watching that film was a visceral experience, so much so that I still can’t bring myself … Continue reading
Grifting the Working Class
Since the 2016 election, pundits have pondered how a man who began his campaign by gliding down an escalator in a gaudy Manhattan skyscraper festooned with his name managed to ride working-class resentment and anxiety to the presidency. How did … Continue reading
Real Government Help for Working-Class People
When I graduated college in 1975, the U.S. was in the midst of a recession, and New York City was on the verge of bankruptcy. As a student, I’d commuted to Herbert Lehman College in the Bronx from my parents’ … Continue reading
Economic Nationalism and the Half-Life of Deindustrialization
In a 60 Minutes interview in September, Steven Bannon touted his form of economic nationalism and suggested that Democrats like Senator Sherrod Brown and U.S Representative Tim Ryan understood his economic vision, even if they didn’t agree with him. It … Continue reading
Cleaning Up the Lease Option Mess in Working-Class Housing
Home ownership may be the most iconic emblem of economic stability for American families, but the pursuit of that goal has drawn too many working-class families into the deceptive agreements knows as “lease option purchase contracts.” To understand the impact … Continue reading
Equal Opportunity Is Not Enough
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
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