From Newslanes.com: America’s shipwrecked working class

Berry Craig

08 Dec, 2022

State militia troops challenge peaceful Lawrence, Mass., textile mill strikers led by the Industrial Workers of the World in 1912. Photo from Wikipedia.

Thanks to Kirk Gillenwaters for sending us this.

By EDWARD LUCE

It has been a bumpy 50 years for blue-collar America. Not only has labour’s share of US national income steadily dropped barring a few brief patches, chiefly the 1990s internet boom, but its life expectancy has also been falling. Having secured the country’s first avowedly pro-union president since Lyndon Johnson, a turning of the corner ought to be in sight. The fact that it is not is less a reflection on Joe Biden than on the biases of the system he heads.

His party is nevertheless on the hook for its failure to deliver. By 2024 Democrats will have controlled the White House for 20 out of 32 years. Yet the federal minimum wage is stuck at $7.25 an hour, which is half what my teenage daughter gets paid to babysit. Canada and the UK both have a 50 per cent higher floor. Alone among developed nations, the US fails to guarantee parental or sick leave. The shrinking corners of America that are still unionised are mostly in jobs where they are least needed, such as the police and prisons.