Working class in the United States
In the
Recent history
Since the 1970s, economic and occupational insecurity has become a major problem for American workers, their families, and their communities, to a much greater extent than their counterparts in peer countries.
While
Despite, or perhaps because of the well-known limitations that the US
Some researchers try to measure the cultural differences between the American middle class and working class and suggest their ahistorical sources and implications for educational attainment, future income, and other life chances. Sociologist Melvin Kohn argues that working class values emphasize external standards, such as obedience and a strong respect for authority as well as little tolerance for deviance. This is opposed to middle-class individuals who, he says, emphasize internal standards, self-direction, curiosity and a tolerance for non-conformity.[3]
... views were quite varied at every class level, but the values we are calling working-class become increasingly common at lower class levels... Kohn's interpretation... is based on the idea that the middle-class parents who stress the values of self-control, curiosity, and consideration are cultivating capacities for self-direction... while working-class parents who focus on obedience, neatness, and good manners are instilling behavioral conformity.
— Dennis Gilbert, The American Class Structure, 1998.[3]
Other social scientists, such as Barbara Jensen, show that middle-class culture tends to be highly individualistic, while working-class culture tends to center around the community.[12] Such cultural value differences are thought to be closely linked to an individual's occupation. Working-class employees tend to be closely supervised and thus emphasize external values and obedience.[13]
Working class culture can be broken down into subgroup tendencies. According to Rubin (1976), there is a differential in social and emotional skills both between working-class men and women and between the blue-color working-class and college-educated workers. Working-class men are characterized by Rubin as taking a rational posture while women are characterized as being more emotional and oriented towards communication of feelings. This constellation of cultural issues has been explored in the popular media, for example, the television shows,
Further, if the hypothesis that culture primarily produces class were true, such a non-dialectical, causal relationship pertains more validly in some low-social mobility societies. Scandinavian countries, by contrast, have discovered that removing structural barriers (and to some extent broadly valorizing working class culture) is effective in increasing social mobility, if not in eradicating social class under capitalism.[14]
Political role of the white working class
According to Thomas B. Edsall, an experienced political commentator, the white working class, defined as non-Hispanic whites who have not completed college, plays a pivotal role in the politics of the United States. This segment of the electorate is large and volatile and its swing vote role closely tracks the success or failure of Democratic candidates. It was solidly Democratic during the New Deal but its support of Democratic candidates has steadily eroded to about 50%. It is also diminishing as a portion of the electorate, both due to increased educational opportunities and because whites make up a declining share of the electorate overall.[15] Reagan Democrats describes the segment of the white working class which forms part of the Republican base of support.
The political role of the white working class was re-examined during the 2016 United States presidential election, due to the strong support for Donald Trump by white working class voters. Trump's victory was in part credited to this support in swing states such as Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, that had previously been won by his Democratic predecessor Barack Obama.[16] Professional pollsters did not predict such a large swing for Trump among the white working class. According to Nate Cohn, the gains that Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton made among other voter classes "were overwhelmed by Mr. Trump's huge appeal to white voters without a degree."[16] Voter turnout among white voters who did not have a college degree had increased by 3 percent from 2012 to 2016., despite the composition of white voters who did not have a college degree decreasing by 1 percent from 2012 to 2016.[17] Florida saw an even larger increase, with voter turnout among white voters without a college degree increasing almost 7 percent from 2012 to 2016.[17] In North Carolina, voter turnout in 2016 by this demographic increasing more than 4 percent compared to 2012.[17]
According to Lynn Vavreck and colleagues, survey data revealed that economic insecurities mattered to Trump voters most when connected to a racial animus, with the job losses being specifically important when lost to an out-group, in a composite they called 'racialized economics'.[18] Trump supporters have in turn been claimed to have actually have their jobs threatened by Trump's policies, but have continued supporting him.[19] Jonathan Metzl has claimed that low-income white men in Missouri, Tennessee and Kansas oppose policies that support people in their position because they believe that undeserving groups would benefit from them.[20] Arlie Russell Hochschild has studied working-class people in Louisiana, and come to the conclusion that what is motivating them is a feeling, which she calls the Deep Story:
You are patiently standing in a long line leading up a hill, as in a pilgrimage. You are situated in the middle of this line, along with others who are also white, older, Christian, predominantly male, some with college degrees, some not. Just over the brow of the hill is the American Dream, the goal of everyone waiting in line.... You've suffered long hours, layoffs, and exposure to dangerous chemicals at work, and received reduced pensions. You have shown moral character through trial by fire, and the American Dream of prosperity and security is a reward for all of this, showing who you have been and are—a badge of honor.... Look! You see people cutting in line ahead of you! You're following the rules. They aren't. As they cut in, it feels like you are being moved back. How can they just do that? Who are they? Some are black. Through affirmative action plans, pushed by the federal government, they are being given preference for places in colleges and universities, apprenticeships, jobs, welfare payments, and free lunches.... Women, immigrants, refugees, public sector workers—where will it end? Your money is running through a liberal sympathy sieve you don't control or agree with.... But it's people like you who have made this country great. You feel uneasy. It has to be said: the line cutters irritate you.... You are a stranger in your own land. You do not recognize yourself in how others see you. It is a struggle to feel seen and honored.... [Y]ou are slipping backward.[21]
See also
- Diseases of despair
- Social class in the United States
- Strangers in Their Own Land
- Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do– extensive oral history from American workers in the 1970s
- White trash
Notes
- ^ Packer, George (October 31, 2016). "Hillary Clinton and the Populist Revolt". The New Yorker. Retrieved 25 October 2016.
- ^ a b c Newport, Frank (3 August 2018). "Looking Into What Americans Mean by "Working Class"". Gallup.com. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
- ^ a b c d e Gilbert, Dennis (1998). The American Class Structure. New York: Wadsworth Publishing. 0-534-50520-1.
- ^ Thompson, William; Hickey, Joseph (2005). Society in Focus. Boston, MA: Pearson. 0-205-41365-X.
- ^ Williams, Brian; Stacey C. Sawyer; Carl M. Wahlstrom (2005). Marriages, Families & Intimate Relationships. Boston, MA: Pearson. 0-205-36674-0.
- ^ O'Brien, Fergal; Schneeweiss, Zoe (June 18, 2020). "U.S. Ranked Worst for Workers' Rights Among Major Economies". Bloomberg. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
- ^ Ghilarducci, Teresa (June 14, 2023). "New Study: U.S. Tops Rich Nations As Worst Place To Work". Forbes. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
- ^ Henderson, Kaitlyn (May 3, 2023). "Where hard work doesn't pay off: An index of US labor policies compared to peer nations". Oxfam. Retrieved July 29, 2023.
The US is falling drastically behind similar countries in mandating adequate wages, protections, and rights for millions of workers and their families. The wealthiest country in the world is near the bottom of every dimension of this index.
- ISBN 9780593239919.
- ISBN 978-0190699765.
- ^ Esping-Anderson, Gosta. 1990. The Three Worlds of Welfare Capitalism. Princeton: Princeton University Press. Page 207.
- ^ a b Zweig, Michael (2004). What's Class Got To Do With It, American Society in the Twenty-First Century. New York, NY: Cornell University Press. 0-8014-8899-0.
- OCLC 886497772. Retrieved August 21, 2018→ Values of the Working Class: function of their resources, position in occupational hierarchy, & their historical origins → Jobs rarely have power to Initiate & Innovate → conditions of their lives, past & present, make central the values of Security & Obedience → values tend to be Authoritarian: Conformity, Obedience, Patriarchal family attitudes, Masculinity, Anti-Intellectualism, Conservatism...)
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link - Labour Movement in the Neoliberal era → negative feedback loop that has cut Civil Society Infrastructure between the Labor Movement, Social Democrats, & the working-class public & undermined Solidaristic values. Social-Democratic Working-class Voters Unable to Identify w/ social-democratic party that seems absorbed by Academic Technocracy & detached from blue-collar voters.)
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link - ^ Thomas B. Edsall (June 17, 2012). "Canaries in the Coal Mine" (Blog by expert). The New York Times. Retrieved June 18, 2012.
- ^ ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
- ^ a b c Griffin, Rob; Teixeira, Ruy; Halpin, John. "Voter Trends in 2016". Center for American Progress. Retrieved 2019-03-18.
- ISBN 978-1-9821-4562-0.
- ^ Lombardo, Timothy (September 16, 2018). "Why white blue-collar voters love President Trump". The Washington Post.
- ISBN 978-1-9821-4562-0.
- ISBN 978-1-9821-4562-0.
Further reading
- Alvarez, Maximillian (2022). The Work of Living: Working People Talk About Their Lives and the Year the World Broke. ISBN 978-1682193235.
- Rubin, Lillian Breslow, Worlds of Pain: Life in the Working Class Family, Basic Books (1976), hardcover ISBN 0-465-09724-3
- Shipler, David K., The Working Poor: Invisible in America, Knopf (2004), hardcover, 322 pages, ISBN 0-375-40890-8
- Zweig, Michael, Working Class Majority: America's Best Kept Secret, Cornell University Press (2001), trade paperback, 198 pages, ISBN 0-8014-8727-7
- "America's Forgotten Majority" Joel Rogers and Ruy Teixeira, The Atlantic June, 2000
- Joel Townsley Rogers, Joel Rogers, America's Forgotten Majority: Why the White Working Class Still Matters, Basic Books (June 2000), hardcover, 232 pages, ISBN 978-0465083985
- "White Working Chaos" blog by Thomas B. Edsall in The New York Times June 25, 2012
- Mortality and morbidity in the 21st century. Report by Angus Deaton and Anne Case for the Brookings Institution, March 23, 2017.