The Rise of the Non-Working Class
Is anyone really surprised?  All of American society was based on the mythos that if you worked hard, you can succeed.  We can debate to what degree this was ever true, but it&#x27;s been obvious for decades that it&#x27;s not true and that it&#x27;s getting worse.<p>With housing becoming an investment increasingly dominated by cynical corporations with no empathy, only greed, even hard workers have to spend every cent they have with no source of significant savings (other than the death of a relative, not available to most) and not even the illusion that they will ever afford a home or be able to raise a family in a middle class lifecycle.<p>Massive corporations have been built off American workers and American infrastructure - the regulations and taxes that provide us roads, utilities, clean water, safe food, safety, and more.  Since at least the 1980s these corporations have abandoned the belief that they need to give back to or invest in these communities and have gone to great measure to slash worker pay, fight regulations, and tear down the educational systems and social safety nets that enabled America&#x27;s growth in the twentieth century.<p>Even safety is far from guaranteed - minorities have known forever that the police are not there to protect them, but it&#x27;s increasingly apparent to everyone that they&#x27;re an organized crime protection racket, refusing to discipline or remove abusive cops, refusing to do their jobs and throwing hissy fits at the slightest suggestion that they be subject to any accountability.  In cities across the country, the mere suggestion that officers not be allowed to physically abuse people leads to a refusal to go on patrol and no consequences.<p>Meanwhile, at the very top billionaires accumulate more and more wealth and face no consequences for their actions.  Whether it&#x27;s manipulating financial markets (and being fined far less than you profited) or blatantly stealing and mishandling classified documents and not even being charged, the fact that there are different concepts of &quot;justice&quot; for different classes has rarely if ever been more evident.<p>Hard work isn&#x27;t rewarded and is often punished with higher expectations (whether that&#x27;s an increased quota or a &#x27;manager&#x27; title) with no increase in pay.  Long gone are the days of joining a company as a janitor with the dream of working your way up; upper and even middle management is an incestuous club who would rather hire someone externally than train someone internal.<p>Why should people want to work for starvation wages that don&#x27;t allow them to build savings to make others rich?