White collar or blue, times are hard all over.

But not for long, because now wages for these white men are falling to a more rational level. And now these dumb white guys are all bent out of shape because they imagine that they merit what as in fact the white guy premium. Now these dumb jerks are bitching about affirmative action, about special race-based and sex-based advantages, when they, or at least their daddys have been eating off of a race-based, sex-based avantage all their lives.

I have not one whit of sympathy, or empathy, for them. If they want more money let them understand that it can only come as a benevolence—through government programs or charity—because they aren’t worth it.

Yeah, how about that?

The median household income is actually a little above that. But just a little.

“The $20 hourly wage, introduced on a huge scale in the middle of the last century, allowed masses of Americans with no more than a high school education to rise to the middle class. It was a marker, of sorts.”

If the wage is in 2007 dollars, how could it have been a ‘marker’ back in the middle of the century? I assume it’s a marker because it’s a nice, round number—mmmm, $20/hr—but if it was actually $6.50 or whatever, well, what’s the article on about? It doesn’t make sense…

deliasmith, as an American, I can assure you that there are no agreed upon standards as to what class means in the United States. Just lots of different opinions. The only thing that is common, I think, is that everyone thinks of themselves as middle class and aspires (and expects) to be rich at some time in the future. This makes class-based politics virtually impossible.

“The problem is the use of the word ‘class’ which doesn’t mean income or wealth category. Class has lots of other connotations which are based upon specifically European history, culture and social structure. The fact that it doesn’t apply well in the US should not be surprising.”

http://globetrotter.berkeley.edu/people7/Warren/warren-con0.html

You are clearly right—something bad is happening, and we have to find an “other” to blame!

Of course, there is the little matter that men traditionally would not permit women to work for wages except for particular racial/ethnic and class reasons. So context is important.

Is it disciplinary or ideological blinders – or both – that so much attention is drawn to changes in labor supply rather than demand? Or context?

BTW and this is probably futile but class can be regarded solely a European thingie only if one overlooks the the past couple hundred years of capitalism.

I see your point, but still find this misleading for the reasons I mentioned before (because everyone assumes they’re middle class, an overgenerous definition helps disguise the extent of economic hardship, since the “real” middle class assumes everyone’s as comfy as they are, the self-designated faux middle class assumes averyone else is as poor as they are.

I think it would be less deceptive to say there no longer is a middle class, just upper and lower.