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What So Many People Don’t Get About the U.S. Working Class
Harvard Business Review ^ | 11/10/2016 | Joan C. Williams

Posted on 11/12/2016 10:20:54 AM PST by Vision Thing

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To: Vision Thing

powerful and true

thanks for posting this


41 posted on 11/12/2016 12:19:24 PM PST by vooch
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To: pierrem15

Importers contribute to us by lowering the cost of goods.


42 posted on 11/12/2016 12:22:41 PM PST by JediJones (Social conservatism is the root of all conservatism.)
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To: Vision Thing
She halfway gets it, which is a half more than most liberal weenies. Which she is one of, make no mistake. Her condescension is well modulated, but leaks out around the edges. She still thinks Trump and the rest of us are racist sexist xenophobic homophobes, she just doesn't say it directly.
43 posted on 11/12/2016 12:23:03 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Most likely the anti-reproduction sentiment is an outgrowth of elitism. The wealthy at the top know that a growing population only increases the chances that these people will revolt or otherwise try to claim the resources that they presently hold a disproportionate amount of.


44 posted on 11/12/2016 12:25:52 PM PST by JediJones (Social conservatism is the root of all conservatism.)
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To: Jim from C-Town
George Bush brought steel making back to the valley in Cleveland, so anything is possible. Except Harvard types who know all about it because of their father ion law.
45 posted on 11/12/2016 12:29:48 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: Kent1957

Transgender bathrooms and “important” don’t belong in the same sentence. The author is clearly on the left but seems to have personal experience with the kind of people who voted for Trump which gives her an understanding in the same way that Michael Moore understood the Trump voter.


46 posted on 11/12/2016 12:32:49 PM PST by JediJones (Social conservatism is the root of all conservatism.)
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To: Vision Thing
I do not think this was all that exceptional. My evidence (from the article):

It is unfair that she wasn't a plausible candidate until she was so overqualified she was suddenly unqualified due to past mistakes.

She was never qualified, much less overqualified.

And treasonous espionage, selling of state secrets and peddling influence to foreign governments? Those are hardly 'mistakes'.

47 posted on 11/12/2016 12:39:37 PM PST by MortMan (Hillary is a clear and present danger.)
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To: JediJones
You assume the lowered cost leads to broadly shared growth that is higher than the overall social costs it imposes.

After the past thirty years, that strikes me as a manifestly false assumption.

The lower costs do not compensate for the lost wages and social decay (higher taxes), which further reduce demand for American made goods and concentrate capital either in the US financial sector or abroad. The drop in demand stemming from the pauperization of Americans further drives consolidation of American businesses who then connive with politicians to extort monopoly rents.

"Free trade" is effectively a death spiral for the United States, destroying both our economy and our political life.

48 posted on 11/12/2016 12:58:27 PM PST by pierrem15 ("Massacrez-les, car le seigneur connait les siens")
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To: Vision Thing
Isn’t what happened to Clinton unfair? Of course it is. It is unfair that she wasn’t a plausible candidate until she was so overqualified she was suddenly unqualified due to past mistakes.

Unfair? She was overqualified? She only got to where she did because she was the wife of a guy who became governor and then president.

She then carpet-bagged into a safe jurisdiction where she could win a senate seat due entirely to celebrity and name recognition and running on gender identity.

Her only accomplishment while Senator was getting money for NY after 9/11, which anyone in her position would have done.

She was made Secretary of State and was a global catastrophe, destroying Libya and Syria and Iraq and screwing up everything she touched, breaking numerous laws along the way.

She could not have even been in that position but for the fact that we are nearly a banana republic controlled by family political dynasties.

49 posted on 11/12/2016 1:02:35 PM PST by Meet the New Boss
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To: Meet the New Boss

That is kind of my take on it. I am a no more Bush’s or Clinton’s type of guy. At the end of the day I was left with Trump. Even though he has never been a politician, his businesses requires that he interacts with these people on a regular basis. He knows these people like the back of his hand..


50 posted on 11/12/2016 1:39:48 PM PST by EVO X
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To: Vision Thing

51 posted on 11/12/2016 1:49:51 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: JediJones
"...a growing population only increases the chances that these people will revolt .."

Yes, I suspect that's a big part of it.

52 posted on 11/12/2016 2:09:50 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o (In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is. Yogi Berra)
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To: Salvation

“Better coverage than Verizon” bump.


53 posted on 11/12/2016 2:12:23 PM PST by Mrs. Don-o (In theory, there's no difference between theory and practice. But in practice, there is. Yogi Berra)
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To: Vision Thing

I’m still wondering what blood soup is and why the author considers it a marker of poverty.

Mrs. AV


54 posted on 11/12/2016 2:27:20 PM PST by Atomic Vomit (http://www.cafepress.com/aroostookbeauty/358829)
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To: Atomic Vomit

One recipe

http://www.yummly.com/recipe/_true-blood_s-beautifully-broken-bisque-304764


55 posted on 11/12/2016 3:05:37 PM PST by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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To: Vision Thing

Here’s what even the author of this piece overlooks: The Millionaire Next Door.
The working class sees a number of working class people start a business and grow it until they have a high net worth but become rich by remaining frugal, faithful to values, etc. This is a model that created 90% of the wealthy, who are first generation rich, and it is one that can be emulated by even the poor with an idea, plan or following the existing model (work for yourself, hire a helper, grow the base, hire more, you have your own company).

In contrast, many middle class professionals have never worked in manual labor, and they are aspirational rich by spending more money on status symbols while clinging to their image as higher than the poor and working class. Those with professional degrees (doctorates, masters) are even more elitist, looking down on those with only bachelor’s degrees. Income, net worth, are almost irrelevant to them.

I am not just quoting from “The Millionaire Next Door”. My husband and I are engineers, frugal and practical. I don’t dress like a professional but in jeans and T-shirts or sweat shirts so the shop floor doesn’t ruin my outfit, and it makes things easier when picking up the kids. I’ve had people in various offices put me down, until I informed them I am an engineer, not just married to one.

Around other parents, I get mistaken for a frumpy housewife. I was asked about our mortgage. Don’t have one. You live with family? No, it is paid off. They were stunned. They have an image of “money/class” that is based more off the Kardashians and soap operas than real life.

One of my most frustrating moments was with my last employer where the explicit bias against whites, men and conservatives something they punished you for bringing up in their implicit bias training. And there is a lot of bias from these same liberal arts grads for “working class” if you aren’t a minority of some type. So black ladies working on the assembly line are empathized with, but the white guys still left are dirt. Anyone without a college degrees is actively discriminated against in jobs that don’t require it, because of credentialitis. White guys without degrees, barring seniority or disabled vet status, were purged.

It was suggested that I go for a master’s degree to improve my job prospects. I asked how having a master’s degree would actually improve my ability to do my job or manage people, when the company had management specific training. We want to measure your status based on the degrees after your name! Oh, and experience and hard manual labor count against you ... and the people looking down on those who do the hard work or make it happen don’t understand why their lessers resent them.


56 posted on 11/12/2016 3:58:27 PM PST by tbw2
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To: bigbob

I like how this article builds on Sean’s theme that the working class doesn’t envy the rich but aspires to follow in their footsteps.

The author emphasizes how the working class despises the incompetence of the professional mangerial class above them, but they don’t despise the rich and successful.

In other words, the incompetent professional managerial class is not the rich and successful.


57 posted on 11/12/2016 5:33:03 PM PST by Vision Thing (You see the depths of my heart, and You love me the same...)
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To: A_perfect_lady

And those ho-woodlum women such as beyonce, madonna, and katy perry not only know their place, but they love it, too. Liberal courtesans indeed.


58 posted on 11/12/2016 5:35:43 PM PST by Vision Thing (You see the depths of my heart, and You love me the same...)
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To: Opinionated Blowhard
I think that any politician who simply emphasizes respect for work would create a very broad coalition. America used to respect work.

Not just emphasizing respect for hard work, but actually doing hard work, too. Trump's astonishing work ethic on the campaign trail made all the difference, and people responded positively to it.

59 posted on 11/12/2016 5:38:39 PM PST by Vision Thing (You see the depths of my heart, and You love me the same...)
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To: xkaydet65
If Trump is successful and if the GOP, seeing that success builds on it instead of returning to its present bearings, the GOP could lead, I will never say rule, this country until my daughter has grandchildren. Trump has a job or work ahead of him. I pray he is up to it.

What's ironic about this article is it is basically James Carville's battlecry: It's the economy, stupid! Bill Clinton followed it. Donald Trump followed it. Hillary Clinton crapped on it and instead declared: It's the celebrity, loser!

60 posted on 11/12/2016 5:46:20 PM PST by Vision Thing (You see the depths of my heart, and You love me the same...)
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