I grew up in the US in the 1970s and 80s, with college and grad school in the 90s -- back before the truly rampant inequality had kicked in. My professional life began in Canada c. 2003 and then I moved back to the US in 2014. What I concluded about the US economic system was that its most impressive feat is to generate feelings of economic precarity and vulnerability way, way up the economic ladder. Households can earn $400K or more per year (multiples of what I earn) and yet still not feel comfortable. Personal savings demands for children's college and for one's retirement are incredibly onerous. Throw in the medical system -- and the fact that even very well-insured people can be subject to ruinous costs at just the time one's income would cease or be dramatically reduced -- and one never feels like one is just a step or two away from living on the edge.
In Canada and most developed countries, by contrast, one can feel economically safe with a fraction of the income.
Given your experience in both systems, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on “feel(ing) economically safe“ versus actually being economically safe, and what conditions create that economic safety, if it exists.
I must say I feel generally very remote from New York (in my tiny, sleepy accidental hometown Düsseldorf in Germany) but I am such a fan of sociological analysis and storytelling (and of Bourdieu) in general that I am intrigued, you seem to be starting one of your ongoing posts... Very interesting!!!
In a very small way (it is a buddi g hope that up until now only encompasses Die Linke - I hope it will spread) we see some shifting on the political left side in Germany too...
Oh well - no doubt: hope is such a powerful life force and I can't get enough of these rousing good news from your favourite city 🤓
Thanks!
And I will look at the study of Rotterdam... Good stuff!
Please note that the NYT has since corrected the chart on the age distribution: https://x.com/aaronnarraph/status/1939788619226448151. It turns out that the 18-24 group contributed around 75,000 votes, not ~125,000. The largest group is voters aged 30-34. This is still a remarkable inversion of the normal age distribution in American elections, of course.
Mamdani is passionate, articulate and inspiring. Exactly opposite of DNC leadership. They (DNC leadership) prefer Chuck Schumer reading from a piece of paper with his reading classes planted at the end of his nose or Jefferey's reading from a teleprompter slowly emphasizing .......... every ........ single ....... word. No passion, and uninspiring. Any wonder the democratic party has a 17% approval rating. They have a great bench but tramp them down in favor of their "superstars". Midterms will be very disappointing if the DNC dusts off their tired playbook and limps into election day. My hope is that youthful democrats will rise up and challenge the leadership. We'll see.
These numbers just don't sound right at all. You need to look closely at whether we are talking about one income or two income households for starters as well as age. A public school teacher married to a police officer/construction worker etc is likely to be a household income over 150k. Intuitively, aren't they working class? Minimum wage in NYC is $16.25, so a minimum wage full time job is something like 32k. And even people who enter the workforce at minimum wage often get some raises within a few years (and to look back at my previous sentence, there are a lot of unionized workers in NYC with salaries often around 70k, often somewhat more. My sociological quick take is that if you are a couple with kids, unless you inherited some extra pile of money, you are likely to feel considerable financial pressure to meet a fairly basic middle class life style (stable housing, sending kids to a public university, medical insurance, saving for retirement, middle class consumer goods plus occasional vacations etc) if you make less than about 200k or even 250k household income in the NYC area. North of that, there are considerable social pressures to live up to a fancier life style (private schools, fancy weddings, etc) that are also likely to make people feel like they don't have all that much financial breathing space until you get to 400 or even 500k household income. I don't think its unreasonable to say a lot of people up to about 300k in household income wonder how they would manage if disaster struck--employment change, medical emergency, etc. Whether people think a politician touting childcare or whatever helps depends on a somewhat intuitive calculation about whether possible tax increases will be exceeded by possible benefits. As well as if you think government can ever get much done.
Agree with Steve's comment. The "middle class" is really what should be called "the privileged working class", the privilege consisting mainly in owner occupied home ownership, a non-capitalist form of property. The non-privilaged working class don't have access to this form of property. Nevertheless the privileged working class are typically 6 months to a year from pernury without an income.
Hello - thank you for all that great work. Could you comment on the latest piece on the subject in the New Yorker " The Case for Zohranomics" on June 30th ?
I have just read a Jacobin-article from their newsletter about the win and the potential prospects to turn around the electorate nationally. There was a Guardian-link included (maybe of interest for you?) about the need to switch to bread and butter issues and a study they made:
I grew up in the US in the 1970s and 80s, with college and grad school in the 90s -- back before the truly rampant inequality had kicked in. My professional life began in Canada c. 2003 and then I moved back to the US in 2014. What I concluded about the US economic system was that its most impressive feat is to generate feelings of economic precarity and vulnerability way, way up the economic ladder. Households can earn $400K or more per year (multiples of what I earn) and yet still not feel comfortable. Personal savings demands for children's college and for one's retirement are incredibly onerous. Throw in the medical system -- and the fact that even very well-insured people can be subject to ruinous costs at just the time one's income would cease or be dramatically reduced -- and one never feels like one is just a step or two away from living on the edge.
In Canada and most developed countries, by contrast, one can feel economically safe with a fraction of the income.
It truly is the genius of the US system.
Given your experience in both systems, I’d be interested to hear your thoughts on “feel(ing) economically safe“ versus actually being economically safe, and what conditions create that economic safety, if it exists.
I must say I feel generally very remote from New York (in my tiny, sleepy accidental hometown Düsseldorf in Germany) but I am such a fan of sociological analysis and storytelling (and of Bourdieu) in general that I am intrigued, you seem to be starting one of your ongoing posts... Very interesting!!!
In a very small way (it is a buddi g hope that up until now only encompasses Die Linke - I hope it will spread) we see some shifting on the political left side in Germany too...
Oh well - no doubt: hope is such a powerful life force and I can't get enough of these rousing good news from your favourite city 🤓
Thanks!
And I will look at the study of Rotterdam... Good stuff!
Please note that the NYT has since corrected the chart on the age distribution: https://x.com/aaronnarraph/status/1939788619226448151. It turns out that the 18-24 group contributed around 75,000 votes, not ~125,000. The largest group is voters aged 30-34. This is still a remarkable inversion of the normal age distribution in American elections, of course.
Mamdani is passionate, articulate and inspiring. Exactly opposite of DNC leadership. They (DNC leadership) prefer Chuck Schumer reading from a piece of paper with his reading classes planted at the end of his nose or Jefferey's reading from a teleprompter slowly emphasizing .......... every ........ single ....... word. No passion, and uninspiring. Any wonder the democratic party has a 17% approval rating. They have a great bench but tramp them down in favor of their "superstars". Midterms will be very disappointing if the DNC dusts off their tired playbook and limps into election day. My hope is that youthful democrats will rise up and challenge the leadership. We'll see.
These numbers just don't sound right at all. You need to look closely at whether we are talking about one income or two income households for starters as well as age. A public school teacher married to a police officer/construction worker etc is likely to be a household income over 150k. Intuitively, aren't they working class? Minimum wage in NYC is $16.25, so a minimum wage full time job is something like 32k. And even people who enter the workforce at minimum wage often get some raises within a few years (and to look back at my previous sentence, there are a lot of unionized workers in NYC with salaries often around 70k, often somewhat more. My sociological quick take is that if you are a couple with kids, unless you inherited some extra pile of money, you are likely to feel considerable financial pressure to meet a fairly basic middle class life style (stable housing, sending kids to a public university, medical insurance, saving for retirement, middle class consumer goods plus occasional vacations etc) if you make less than about 200k or even 250k household income in the NYC area. North of that, there are considerable social pressures to live up to a fancier life style (private schools, fancy weddings, etc) that are also likely to make people feel like they don't have all that much financial breathing space until you get to 400 or even 500k household income. I don't think its unreasonable to say a lot of people up to about 300k in household income wonder how they would manage if disaster struck--employment change, medical emergency, etc. Whether people think a politician touting childcare or whatever helps depends on a somewhat intuitive calculation about whether possible tax increases will be exceeded by possible benefits. As well as if you think government can ever get much done.
Agree with Steve's comment. The "middle class" is really what should be called "the privileged working class", the privilege consisting mainly in owner occupied home ownership, a non-capitalist form of property. The non-privilaged working class don't have access to this form of property. Nevertheless the privileged working class are typically 6 months to a year from pernury without an income.
Hello - thank you for all that great work. Could you comment on the latest piece on the subject in the New Yorker " The Case for Zohranomics" on June 30th ?
Thank you again.
Bassem Snaije - Paris - France
I have just read a Jacobin-article from their newsletter about the win and the potential prospects to turn around the electorate nationally. There was a Guardian-link included (maybe of interest for you?) about the need to switch to bread and butter issues and a study they made:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/09/democrats-economics-working-class-politics-voters