I have TWO choices where I live for groceries - a Super-Duper Walmart or the Piggly Wiggly - a Wisconsin-owned chain of grocery stores. I shop both depending upon what is on sale any given week.
At the Walmart I have WATCHED the young woman who used to load my grocery order (started using it during Covid-BS-19 and LOVE it!) who told me she and her family were basically HOMELESS, and now, less than a year later, she is a Department Manager in the store! She is a hard worker and a delightful person. She (and her husband!) have pulled themselves UP the ladder in both of their jobs. He is in Construction.
At ‘The Pig’ as we affectionately call it, everyone beside the key Managers are either HS Kids or a Retiree looking to make a few bucks or looking to have something to do. Their Bakery is AMAZING - filled with retired Norwegian Grandmas who KNOW how to bake! I know the kids are making upwards of $15/hour. (I asked!) There are NO 30-something Wage Earners supporting families while working there. They all have REAL jobs. ;)
No one in my immediate area is starving to death working in a retail store, ‘Jacobin.’
No one in all of America is starving, ‘Jacobin.’ Even those that don’t WANT to work!
Just a hair split but Piggly Wiggly’s HQ is in Keene, New Hampshire. There used to be dozens of PW stores and a big warehouse in the Charleston, SC area. Now there’s only 6 stores left and the warehouse closed years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piggly_Wiggly
Today, people who would be in middle class comfort are trying to make middle class wages while driving a pizza delivery route, or pouring coffee at Starbucks. Those are jobs for high-school kids or stay-at-homes looking to get out of the house for a few hours and make a few extra bucks.
In the small town in northern Illinois where I live (population around 45K) there are probably 100 or more people just finishing their evening of delivering dinner right now. I don't care how nice your car is or how many college degrees you have, the quality of your performance is based on, did dinner arrive within a reasonable time frame, did the right order get delivered, and hopefully nobody spit on my dinner. That's what determines the tip.
There is an entire generation of Americans (maybe 2?) who have no idea what middle class is. All they know is that somebody cheated them out of it, and they don't know who to blame,
“No one in my immediate area is starving to death working in a retail store, ‘Jacobin.’
No one in all of America is starving, ‘Jacobin.’ Even those that don’t WANT to work!”
If anything, it’s the reverse. Americans are getting huge.