> The FTE citizens rarely visit the country where the other 80 percent of Americans live: the low-wage sector.<p>This assertion is completely unsupported, and as it turns out wrong: <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/05/through-an-american-lens-western-europes-middle-classes-appear-smaller" rel="nofollow">https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2017/06/05/through-an-...</a>.<p>> Overall, regardless of how middle class fortunes are analyzed, the material standard of living in the U.S. is estimated to be better than in most Western European countries examined.<p>The median disposable household income in the US is $60,000, versus $44,000 in France. That’s the median—it’s not skewed up by the very high incomes at the top. (Even that requires some adjustment. The median age in the US is 38, versus say 47 for Germany. The median German is at the top of their lifetime compensation curve, the median American is not there yet.)<p>At least in Maryland, California, etc., at that income level, a family qualifies for ACA subsidies that limit health insurance premiums to 8-10% of income, comparable to the health insurance payroll taxes in many european countries.<p>There is an attempt to popularize the idea that in the US it’s the top breaking away from everyone else, and that doesn’t happen in Europe. If you dig into the data, where the US diverges the most noticeably is actually the bottom 10-20%. And that’s a direct result of the middle 70%. The pay far lower taxes than in Europe, which funds a much less generous welfare state.
The title may be a bit overstated, but I think the separation between low income working class people and those in more high paying professional jobs is pretty real. I grew up in a rural area, paid for college by serving in the military, then hustled my way into tech (like lots of others). Very few of my friends from high school or the military have had similar luck getting a stable job. When I talk to my current tech coworkers about anything that was very normal as a child (hunting, owning guns, working 20-30hrs a week after school, etc) - its like we are from different planets.<p>This was on PBS a while back, I think it gets at some of the differences pretty well: <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-a-quiz-2" rel="nofollow">https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/do-you-live-in-a-bubble...</a>
This has sure been my experience. I graduated with a CS degree from a typical state school in May, with a couple internships under my belt, and have only had job offers so far have been less than half what is reported to be the median pay. Most places don't respond at all even to decline, I'm given no indication many times that they read my resume / cover letter.<p>Is this what a 'industry that can't fill its positions' looks like? Is this what unemployment being 'too low!' looks like? All these indicators seem fraudulent, and the facts on the ground seem more akin to what this author is postulating. It is hard to imagine what the economy used to be like at its peak, where one could allegedly find a reasonable job at the median pay-rate for the industry, when you are pretty much qualified, without applying to several hundred places.
I agree there's a phenomenon happening here and elsewhere where being "normal" doesn't cut it anymore, meaning if you're just an average person of average intelligence you have it harder now than someone in your shoes 40 years ago to live a good life. OTOH, if you're extraordinary in some way, and smart enough to know how to capitalize on it, you're in a much better position now than someone who was equally extraordinary a few decades ago.
To me, the most important characteristic of a developing nation is widespread corruption down to the lowest levels. I don't mean just politicians being bought by lobbyists, that happens everywhere, but when you have to bribe every public official to get anything done, or have to bribe doctors in hospitals before they even look at you. Is this the case for most people in America? I didn't have that impression when I visited.
It's true that American infrastructure is terrible. I think the root cause is political incompetence, especially at the state and city levels. Often the money is there but gets squandered by people who cannot plan or are driven by personal vendettas that don't correlate with the needs of the constituency.
The site seems to be struggling so I put a mirror on IPFS <a href="https://ipfs.io/ipfs/Qmbw1uWRag96q189CESdoz1DGU3QLxovQmXFv7Mvb5A4UN" rel="nofollow">https://ipfs.io/ipfs/Qmbw1uWRag96q189CESdoz1DGU3QLxovQmXFv7M...</a>
I've been talking about the decline of the interior for a decade or more, and listening to politicians and academics on both the left and the right (who mostly live on the coasts) deny it.<p>If nothing is done about this we are going to get someone way worse than Trump. Whether it's a right or left totalitarian probably depends on which side can field a compelling demagogue first. Ultimately the politics won't matter much as long as pitchforks are handed out.
> The primary goal of the richest members of the high-income sector is to lower taxes.<p>I would add a qualifier here, lower taxes <i>for themselves</i>. The Wall Street had no problem taking handouts from big government in 2008 made possible by taxes.
> America’s underlying racism has a continuing distorting impact. A majority of the low-wage sector is white, with blacks and Latinos making up the other part, but politicians learned to talk as if the low-wage sector is mostly black because it allowed them to appeal to racial prejudice, which is useful in maintaining support for the structure of the dual economy — and hurting everyone in the low-wage sector. Temin notes that “the desire to preserve the inferior status of blacks has motivated policies against all members of the low-wage sector.”<p>Contrary to what this paragraph implies, this is a misperception that both parties exploit. All too often does the left claim that white privilege lets one go through life on easy-mode [1].<p>[1] <a href="https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/mar/07/bernie-sanders/bernie-sanders-wrong-say-when-youre-white-you-dont/" rel="nofollow">https://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/mar...</a>