Wow, thanks Richard. A spirited rejoinder. I'd hardly call my list out of the Obama-Hillary-Kamala playbook. Out of the Bernie Sanders playbook is more like it. I was a Bernie fan, never a fan of the other three. And no matter whose playbook it is, all that is surely what has to happen. What other playbook could there be, other than a far-leftist "burn it all down" kind of thing, as in the days of the "theory wars"? None of my list has remotely been advocated in anybody's campaign except Bernie's. As for Aunt Joanie, are we going to say it's okay for her to sign off on, if not celebrate, some of the devastation going on? Really? Not me, brother. The ends do not justify the means.
As for degrees, if we eliminate preposterous student debt, we can give students a choice. I'm just saying it's arrogant to assume that working class kids will automatically opt for the plumber's apprenticeship over liberal education. There may be a number of kids that actually hunger for that education, if they could do it without graduating $30,000 in debt. And the whole point is to change the economic system so that it isn't Starbucks or be a plumber. Plumbing is fucking hard work that breaks down your body over years. And everybody can't be a plumber, especially women. "Non-college" has to be expanded to include jobs that aren't blue-collar manual labor: what if Amazon and UPS actually had to treat their employees like human beings?
Make no mistake--I loved getting your comments, and I take them seriously. If we don't start talking about all this stuff, it's all going to continue to go downhill. And thanks, as always, for being a faithful reader. I'm honored.
Michael, another excellent and incisive post that showcases your rare perspective as someone who climbed out of the working class, embodying the American Dream. Yet, methinks thou dost protest too much against Aunt Joanie and her Trump sympathies. Your articulate critique (and the Williams book, which now I must check out!) of her worldview feels less like engagement and more like a defense of a progressive orthodoxy that's showing cracks. Your policy prescriptions read like a Democratic Party playbook—straight out of an Obama, Hillary, or Kamala campaign speech:
> _What has to happen includes the following: (1) a restructuring of corporations so that their main goal is no longer ensuring profits for shareholders at the expense of employees and the public; (2) a cap on obscene CEO salaries; (3) a reform of the banking and financial institutions—in other words, re-regulation; (4) an extension of the social safety net, Scandinavian-fashion—in other words, healthcare for all; (5) a return to subsidizing higher education the way we used to so that students do not face crushing student debt._
which is a concise summary of Democratic talking points for decades. Like them, aren't you proposing we just double down? _this time, we'll really make it work_. But Aunt Joanie, and millions like her, are exhausted by promises that echo communism's old refrain: "the real version hasn't been tried." Say what you will about Trump, but his enemies take him seriously enough to be jolted into action. Steven Pinker’s recent NYTimes piece is basically an admission of his own failure to reform Harvard's excesses. Trump's threats are forcing the changes Pinker couldn't achieve. And let’s not mention other progressive shibboleths like top surgery for confused teenage girls—is that really a hill we’re supposed to die on?
Meanwhile Aunt Joanie, by oft experience taught, knows that being called Hitler or white supremacist or "low information" or "voting against her own interests" has been an occupational hazard for everyone on the right since Reagan. Accusations now ‘scarce felt’ through repetition.
On education, let’s not conflate "education" with "college," (or worse, “college degree”), a common luxury belief (Rob Henderson’s excellent term for ideas that signal virtue among elites but harm the marginalized). Subsidizing degrees sounds noble, but when a working-class kid wastes years on a sociology degree so he can work at Starbucks while plumbers make $100k, it’s common sense to wonder about that high falutin goal of college for all.
Wow, thanks Richard. A spirited rejoinder. I'd hardly call my list out of the Obama-Hillary-Kamala playbook. Out of the Bernie Sanders playbook is more like it. I was a Bernie fan, never a fan of the other three. And no matter whose playbook it is, all that is surely what has to happen. What other playbook could there be, other than a far-leftist "burn it all down" kind of thing, as in the days of the "theory wars"? None of my list has remotely been advocated in anybody's campaign except Bernie's. As for Aunt Joanie, are we going to say it's okay for her to sign off on, if not celebrate, some of the devastation going on? Really? Not me, brother. The ends do not justify the means.
As for degrees, if we eliminate preposterous student debt, we can give students a choice. I'm just saying it's arrogant to assume that working class kids will automatically opt for the plumber's apprenticeship over liberal education. There may be a number of kids that actually hunger for that education, if they could do it without graduating $30,000 in debt. And the whole point is to change the economic system so that it isn't Starbucks or be a plumber. Plumbing is fucking hard work that breaks down your body over years. And everybody can't be a plumber, especially women. "Non-college" has to be expanded to include jobs that aren't blue-collar manual labor: what if Amazon and UPS actually had to treat their employees like human beings?
Make no mistake--I loved getting your comments, and I take them seriously. If we don't start talking about all this stuff, it's all going to continue to go downhill. And thanks, as always, for being a faithful reader. I'm honored.
Best,
Michael
Michael, another excellent and incisive post that showcases your rare perspective as someone who climbed out of the working class, embodying the American Dream. Yet, methinks thou dost protest too much against Aunt Joanie and her Trump sympathies. Your articulate critique (and the Williams book, which now I must check out!) of her worldview feels less like engagement and more like a defense of a progressive orthodoxy that's showing cracks. Your policy prescriptions read like a Democratic Party playbook—straight out of an Obama, Hillary, or Kamala campaign speech:
> _What has to happen includes the following: (1) a restructuring of corporations so that their main goal is no longer ensuring profits for shareholders at the expense of employees and the public; (2) a cap on obscene CEO salaries; (3) a reform of the banking and financial institutions—in other words, re-regulation; (4) an extension of the social safety net, Scandinavian-fashion—in other words, healthcare for all; (5) a return to subsidizing higher education the way we used to so that students do not face crushing student debt._
which is a concise summary of Democratic talking points for decades. Like them, aren't you proposing we just double down? _this time, we'll really make it work_. But Aunt Joanie, and millions like her, are exhausted by promises that echo communism's old refrain: "the real version hasn't been tried." Say what you will about Trump, but his enemies take him seriously enough to be jolted into action. Steven Pinker’s recent NYTimes piece is basically an admission of his own failure to reform Harvard's excesses. Trump's threats are forcing the changes Pinker couldn't achieve. And let’s not mention other progressive shibboleths like top surgery for confused teenage girls—is that really a hill we’re supposed to die on?
Meanwhile Aunt Joanie, by oft experience taught, knows that being called Hitler or white supremacist or "low information" or "voting against her own interests" has been an occupational hazard for everyone on the right since Reagan. Accusations now ‘scarce felt’ through repetition.
On education, let’s not conflate "education" with "college," (or worse, “college degree”), a common luxury belief (Rob Henderson’s excellent term for ideas that signal virtue among elites but harm the marginalized). Subsidizing degrees sounds noble, but when a working-class kid wastes years on a sociology degree so he can work at Starbucks while plumbers make $100k, it’s common sense to wonder about that high falutin goal of college for all.