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Class Consciousness Comes to America

Karen Nussbaum The American Prospect
Even in Trump country, pro-union sentiment is rising. But can labor and its allies turn that sentiment into power?

labor

Why Millennial Precarity Should Change The Way We Think About Class

Lauren Nicole Clark The Establishment
With the bleak future millennials are facing, it must be asked: Will the cultural capital of middle classness retain the same meaning as the middle class in America continues to erode? Or will class culture and consciousness evolve?

labor

Public Servants Are Losing Their Foothold in the Middle Class

Patricia Cohen and Robert Gebeloff New York Times
For generations of Americans, working for a state or local government — as a teacher, firefighter, bus driver or nurse — provided a comfortable nook in the middle class. But they are now finding themselves financially downgraded.

GOP Attacks Healthcare, Now Seeks to End Medical Tax Break

Kate Zernike and Abby Goodnough New York Times
Ending the medical tax break could be a ‘gut punch’ to the majority of the country. Eliminating the medical-expense deduction would end a source of relief that has helped millions of people cope with steep medical costs in a country without comprehensive, universal health coverage.

tv

We Asked Financial Advisers: How Realistic is Netflix’s New Show, ‘Ozark’?

Tom Teodorczuk MarketWatch
Netflix's Ozark brings capitalism's corrosive effects to middle america through the lens of a financial adviser and money laundering. Right from the opening monologue narrated by star Jason Bateman, Netflix’s new drama “Ozark” makes clear it doesn’t just want to depict a financial adviser up to his neck in danger. It’s out to convey profound truths about money.

Trumpism: It’s Coming From the Suburbs

Jesse A. Myerson The Nation
Racism, fascism, and working-class Americans. If you’re looking for Trump’s implacable support, Texas trailer parks and Kentucky cabins are the wrong places to find it. Fascism develops over hands of poker in furnished basements, over the grill by the backyard pool, over beers on the commuter-rail ride back from the ball game—and in police stations and squad cars.

Child Care Often Pricier Than Rent, Food, and College Tuition

Teddy Wilson Rewire
"Improving our nation's child-care system will have a compound effect," said Aleyamma Mathew, director of the Women's Economic Justice Program of the Ms. Foundation for Women. "Not only on the millions of women in the workforce but on communities and the economy as a whole."

Economic Policy That Doesn't Confront the Rise in Inequality Head-On Will Do Nothing to Help the Vast Majority of American Families

Josh Biven Economic Policy Institute
Using policy to shift economic power and make U.S. incomes grow fairer and faster. Boosting income growth for the bottom 90 percent requires a policy agenda that explicitly aims to halt or reverse the rise in inequality. Finding no relationship between rising inequality and faster growth means raising living standards for the bottom 90 percent can likely be better for overall growth.
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