What Ails the Working Class in America?

America has been a notably hard-working society for most of its history-but has become much less so in recent decades. Labor-force participation, especially among men of prime working age, has fallen to levels not seen since the Great Depression and is particularly low in certain regions of the Middle West and South. The decline of work has coincided with declining health status and longevity and high levels of drug addiction.
Policy analysts and political leaders have offered widely differing explanations for these discouraging trends, from trade policies and globalization to welfare policies, cultural upheavals, and regulatory suppression of economic opportunities. Their ideas for reversing course have important implications not only for national social and economic welfare, but also for partisan politics, as working-class Americans have been shifting significantly from their traditional home in the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.
Join us to learn more about this critical topic as Heritage’s Christopher DeMuth moderates a conversation with Oren Cass (author of The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America), Nicholas Eberstadt (author of Men Without Work), Iain Murray (author of The Socialist Temptation), and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (author of Blue Collar Conservatives: Recommitting to an America That Works).
Still haven’t subscribed to The Heritage Foundation on KZbin? Click here ► bit.ly/2otKliy
Follow The Heritage Foundation on Facebook: / heritagefoundation
Follow The Heritage Foundation on Twitter: / heritage
Follow The Heritage Foundation on Instagram: heritagefou...

[@jesipohl6717]

answer: the republican party gaslighting them.

[@viviannedonnelly233]

Amen to that. Heritage Foundation and their ilk will not stop before they destroy The United States of America. VOTE BLUE!

[@borginburkes1819]

This video is some top tier gaslighting. There’s only so many hours in a week, and working 80 hours a week for $10 an hour isn’t gonna cut it.

[@petebrown2845]

Underlying problem is the GOP prefers lower wages and more workers in workforce because thats what their business owner donors want. Until that changes the ability of Republicans to get working class votes is going to be limited..

[@TechWeLove]

While the democrats import cheap labor in the form of illegal immigrants.

[@RMDad358]

😂😂😂 25 minutes in, tell Herman Munster that he needs to go back to the Hamptons or whatever Ivory Tower he is in. There is a labor shortage because wages are not keeping up with inflation, so people find work elsewhere. Are you or your kids going to be a Homecare Aid for $10/hr, or are you going to do something that makes them more money. You probably also wonder why drugs in prisons got so bad after prisons were privatized and unions we kicked out. Let's see, you lowered the pay and reduced the incentives for the worker to stay in the career for the long term. Less investment in employees = lower quality of employees I'll stop here because I charge $125/ hr ✌️.

[@JustMe-gx4xt]

What do you do for $125/hr? After 10+ years in tech, layoffs everywhere since 2022. I've been looking for work and cannot find anything over $20/hr for the past year. I cannot support a family of 5 on such income. It seems that all good paying jobs have disappeared and all I see is minimum wage jobs. Please share what industry you are in. I dont mind switching careers and done it before, but cannot seem to find what is in demand in today's society.

[@jesipohl6717]

@@JustMe-gx4xt i feel for your kids, it's not their fault, but voting for someone who is very open about wanting to cut welfare (GOP) isn't going to be your salvation. If you vote GOP you vote against your own families immediate interests. The GOP has so eroded labour rights that career jobs have entirely been replaced by three year contracts and nobody was really able to effectively strike about it. I also freelance at about 100€/hour doing training work and historical education. I made my own work, but I don't have kids and can spend the inordinate amount of time to do this, which parents will have trouble with while trying to raise kids in a healthy way. That said there is nothing healthy about GOP family values either, against science they go after kids for gender diversity, for example. Keep putting that stick in your own bike's wheel and blaming others for it.

[@JustMe-gx4xt]

@@jesipohl6717 thanks for your response, but I dont understand how you connect GOP and that conservatives are against family values... Putting a stick in your wheels seems foolish and I dont understand why you think that I put sticks into my wheels. I am somewhat confused by your response. 🤔

[@bkelsey6692]

Wages are not keeping up with cost price index. Not inflation. Minimum wage laws have done nothing to help this.

[@Xsetsu]

As someone who grew up in and has lived around work class people all my life, I can safely say you are clueless about working classes families and their problems. This is always one of the biggest problems is that there is no representation of the working class in politics but there is always some ___ who thinks they have all the answers and knows exactly what ails the working class. Also would have been nice if you show the slides everyone keeps referring to, but sounds like your data is used to push your agenda and nothing more.