This leaves me wondering how big of a factor the increasing number of people who go to college plays in explaining some of the trends. That is, I see a lot of students who enter college as freshmen who simply are not prepared for college as it currently is and other more academically inclined students who would not have cut it in the greater academic rigor in the past. I imagine many of these students, in previous decades, would have gone straight into the workforce. According to Aaron's definition, this would make them working class.
In other words, perhaps the composition of those considered working class has sufficiently changed in that you have to be nowhere near someone who could be mistaken as academically gifted in order to not go to college (if you're just a normie getting guidance from the school guidance counselor who thinks everyone should go to college; I'm not talking about those who received reasonable guidance from parents and other mentors and decided a trade was best for them). And so in yesteryear the reason why there didn't seem to be such a big gap between the college educated and non-college educated is because the gap between the marginal college student vs. the marginal non-college student of yesteryear was less visible than the gap today between an average college graduate and the typical person who never went to college.
It seems to be the case that gradations in intelligence on the lower end of the spectrum are more visible than those at the higher end (check out this video for instance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCQg-EU29dI), and these will manifest themselves in very different gaps in terms of life outcomes.
Get a skill, get a job, keep a job, and don't have a kid till you are married. The wealthiest members of my extended family never went to college, or if they attended, did not graduate. What they did do was get a trade, show up sober to work, and get married prior to having kids.
Their kids have gotten a trade (often the same), are all engaged or married (all married prior to having a kid) and are now far better off financially than myself, a professor at a small university. This ain't rocket science, I just cant imagine for the life of me why we don't talk about this stuff in schools and families growing up, and why this is not explicitly preached from the pulpit in every church in America.
I would love to see this WC men data broken down by career, I have a hard time believing the data is nearly as pessimistic for plumbers and electricians as it is for those working in service jobs or the consistently unemployed.
The bright side is some men know the changes in our politics and culture are not serving them well. So they are rebelling by returning to more traditional values. I see this reflected in political polling and with the increased number of 20something men attending three traditional church groups I'm involved in.
This article points out something that hits home with my family. All of the men in my family are blue collar metal fabricators. Some work in constructing sheds, others work in factories. The men. The men in my family start off doing ok. My grandpa was married with children, owned his own home in a suburb close to his work, which included white collar people (although there was a lot of public housing around also). My dad and uncles all do the same line of work, but had to move a long way from their home area to some where else and commute to get to work. But they still managed to have a job for life, own their own home and raise a family. My brother has a job, but its not permanent and he lives in my parents garage. There's a lot of alcohol and even drugs have become something in my family, which weren't part of my dad or grandpa's lives. my brother and I have had our own battles with suicide. It seems like the blue collar men in my family follow this graph. A big difference though, I believe is that I have finished highschool and have a master's degree. It makes me look at the world with a series of options for what I can do and what I can learn. I think my blue collar background has made me go down many potholes in my professional career due to genuinely not understanding or having the people skills to communicate with professional people, but I have learnt from my mistakes and now I'm improving each day. My brother on the other hand all I can guess is that he sees the world as a series of deadends with no way out signs. He has no goals, and does not feel he has the capacity to achieve those goals if he tried. His wants and needs are like any other man, a stable job, the capacity to buy a house, to meet a good woman and have a family. I don't have any answers because even though were from the same background, we treading two different paths.
For instance I have an Associate from a technical school and numerous professional certifications and licenses. I suspect I would be seen as uneducated by most University graduates, it certainly worked that way in the corporate world I worked in.
But if my Dad saw me going between my office cubicle and electronics laboratory, he would see me as white collar.
He was a rail yard worker and is why I identify with the working class.
Thanks, Aaron. Regarding intersectionality, I find that it's 1) very useful for insight, when regarded as one element of an intellectual toolkit and 2) toxic garbage when regarded as an ideology.
This leaves me wondering how big of a factor the increasing number of people who go to college plays in explaining some of the trends. That is, I see a lot of students who enter college as freshmen who simply are not prepared for college as it currently is and other more academically inclined students who would not have cut it in the greater academic rigor in the past. I imagine many of these students, in previous decades, would have gone straight into the workforce. According to Aaron's definition, this would make them working class.
In other words, perhaps the composition of those considered working class has sufficiently changed in that you have to be nowhere near someone who could be mistaken as academically gifted in order to not go to college (if you're just a normie getting guidance from the school guidance counselor who thinks everyone should go to college; I'm not talking about those who received reasonable guidance from parents and other mentors and decided a trade was best for them). And so in yesteryear the reason why there didn't seem to be such a big gap between the college educated and non-college educated is because the gap between the marginal college student vs. the marginal non-college student of yesteryear was less visible than the gap today between an average college graduate and the typical person who never went to college.
It seems to be the case that gradations in intelligence on the lower end of the spectrum are more visible than those at the higher end (check out this video for instance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCQg-EU29dI), and these will manifest themselves in very different gaps in terms of life outcomes.
Get a skill, get a job, keep a job, and don't have a kid till you are married. The wealthiest members of my extended family never went to college, or if they attended, did not graduate. What they did do was get a trade, show up sober to work, and get married prior to having kids.
Their kids have gotten a trade (often the same), are all engaged or married (all married prior to having a kid) and are now far better off financially than myself, a professor at a small university. This ain't rocket science, I just cant imagine for the life of me why we don't talk about this stuff in schools and families growing up, and why this is not explicitly preached from the pulpit in every church in America.
I would love to see this WC men data broken down by career, I have a hard time believing the data is nearly as pessimistic for plumbers and electricians as it is for those working in service jobs or the consistently unemployed.
The bright side is some men know the changes in our politics and culture are not serving them well. So they are rebelling by returning to more traditional values. I see this reflected in political polling and with the increased number of 20something men attending three traditional church groups I'm involved in.
This article points out something that hits home with my family. All of the men in my family are blue collar metal fabricators. Some work in constructing sheds, others work in factories. The men. The men in my family start off doing ok. My grandpa was married with children, owned his own home in a suburb close to his work, which included white collar people (although there was a lot of public housing around also). My dad and uncles all do the same line of work, but had to move a long way from their home area to some where else and commute to get to work. But they still managed to have a job for life, own their own home and raise a family. My brother has a job, but its not permanent and he lives in my parents garage. There's a lot of alcohol and even drugs have become something in my family, which weren't part of my dad or grandpa's lives. my brother and I have had our own battles with suicide. It seems like the blue collar men in my family follow this graph. A big difference though, I believe is that I have finished highschool and have a master's degree. It makes me look at the world with a series of options for what I can do and what I can learn. I think my blue collar background has made me go down many potholes in my professional career due to genuinely not understanding or having the people skills to communicate with professional people, but I have learnt from my mistakes and now I'm improving each day. My brother on the other hand all I can guess is that he sees the world as a series of deadends with no way out signs. He has no goals, and does not feel he has the capacity to achieve those goals if he tried. His wants and needs are like any other man, a stable job, the capacity to buy a house, to meet a good woman and have a family. I don't have any answers because even though were from the same background, we treading two different paths.
I assume you mean no bachelors degree or above?
For instance I have an Associate from a technical school and numerous professional certifications and licenses. I suspect I would be seen as uneducated by most University graduates, it certainly worked that way in the corporate world I worked in.
But if my Dad saw me going between my office cubicle and electronics laboratory, he would see me as white collar.
He was a rail yard worker and is why I identify with the working class.
Yes, bachelors degree or higher. As you note, at best a rough proxy but a commonly used one.
In my career I worked in Electronics Manufacturing Engineering, part of the manufacturing line that is falling in your graph.
Thanks, Aaron. Regarding intersectionality, I find that it's 1) very useful for insight, when regarded as one element of an intellectual toolkit and 2) toxic garbage when regarded as an ideology.