[2006alum]

Insofar as the Marx-invoking "class struggle" warriors around these parts all seem to lean right, I thought this op-ed was pretty on point in identifying the actual issue at stake here:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1262546270578782208?s=20[/tweet]

“Here’s a generalization based on a lifetime of experience and observation. The working-class people who are pushing back have had harder lives than those now determining their fate.”

The assumptions underlying this generalization, however, are not based on even a cursory look at actual data. In a recent Washington Post/Ipsos survey, 74 percent of respondents agreed that the “U.S. should keep trying to slow the spread of the coronavirus, even if that means keeping many businesses closed.” Agreement was slightly higher — 79 percent — among respondents who’d been laid off or furloughed.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have been tracking the impact of coronavirus on a representative sample of American households. They’ve found that when it comes to judging policies on the coronavirus, “politics is the overwhelming force dividing Americans,” and that “how households have been economically impacted by the Covid crisis so far” plays only a minimal role.

Based on the number of people Mick has had to fire, I assume he is part of the "managerial elite" in his company. And I'm guessing his salary is six figures, so he's also part of the upper middle class elite. So is he part of the problem, making choices for workers that he himself is insulated from? 

Meanwhile, I've never been in a managerial position in my life - apart from supervising temporary interns, I've always been the lowest person on the organizational totem pole. My annual salary hasn't even come close to six figures. Does that make me part of the oppressed working class?

It's almost comically easy to blow up the crude dichotomies that folks like Peggy Noonan want to construct - life is often a lot more complicated than that.

[2006alum]

Insofar as the Marx-invoking "class struggle" warriors around these parts all seem to lean right, I thought this op-ed was pretty on point in identifying the actual issue at stake here:

[tweet]https://twitter.com/nytopinion/status/1262546270578782208?s=20[/tweet]

“Here’s a generalization based on a lifetime of experience and observation. The working-class people who are pushing back have had harder lives than those now determining their fate.”

The assumptions underlying this generalization, however, are not based on even a cursory look at actual data. In a recent Washington Post/Ipsos survey, 74 percent of respondents agreed that the “U.S. should keep trying to slow the spread of the coronavirus, even if that means keeping many businesses closed.” Agreement was slightly higher — 79 percent — among respondents who’d been laid off or furloughed.

Researchers at the University of Chicago have been tracking the impact of coronavirus on a representative sample of American households. They’ve found that when it comes to judging policies on the coronavirus, “politics is the overwhelming force dividing Americans,” and that “how households have been economically impacted by the Covid crisis so far” plays only a minimal role.

Based on the number of people Mick has had to fire, I assume he is part of the "managerial elite" in his company. And I'm guessing his salary is six figures, so he's also part of the upper middle class elite. So is he part of the problem, making choices for workers that he himself is insulated from? 

Meanwhile, I've never been in a managerial position in my life - apart from supervising temporary interns, I've always been the lowest person on the organizational totem pole. My annual salary hasn't even come close to six figures. Does that make me part of the oppressed working class?

It's almost comically easy to blow up the crude dichotomies that folks like Peggy Noonan want to construct - life is often a lot more complicated than that.