Joel Kotkin essay "A New Age of Feudalism for the Working Class?"

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The rise of the gig economy.

I had a glimpse of this in the 90s when I started work after graduating from university. The amount of temp workers kept increasing.

We Gen-Xers call it temployment.
 
Scary to say the least and yes, I agree with the author. This type of wealth disparity and lack of upward social mobility is dangerous. The type of things that revolutions are made of. We in the United States often arrogantly believe that a revolution cannot happen here. I believe it can and we are kidding ourselves to think otherwise.

Was also horrified by this stat:

”In some working-class neighborhoods, particularly those with a large proportion of ethnic minorities, four-fifths of all children are born to unmarried mothers. The rate of single parenting is the most significant predictor of social immobility across the United States and in Europe as well.“

Four-fifths!! That is insane!!
 
The middle class is getting squeezed out.

Usually jobs that enable one to enter into the middle class are the jobs that require higher education.

Well now we’ve put a pay wall for entry into the middle class and this pay wall is the price of a university education which is getting increasingly steep that only the rich can afford without getting into crippling debt.

One can argue about getting into trade schools but even trade schools are getting prohibitively expensive.

So we raise the price of post secondary education, raise the price of housing especially in areas with more jobs, raise the price of health insurance (in the US), make it more difficult for young people to get and keep their jobs and yet we wonder why young people aren’t getting married and having families.
 
Excellent summation.

As a fellow Gen Xer who was able to land a (relatively) high paying job that has continued to pay well as I progressed in my career, it would be easy for me to take a “Well I did it, you can too” attitude.

What can be done to reverse this trend? A shift in attitude from the “Everyone has to go to college” model? Regulations on tuition and health care costs? I cringe at the thought of more government regulation but we’re seeing the results of an un-checked system.
 
It’s wage slavery, only slightly better than chattel slavery according to Frederick Douglass.
 
Great article, again I’m a moderate and found the author objective and moderate. Well, I’ll add some further insight. The Stock Market has now decoupled from the Domestic Economy through 0 interest rates, foreign investment, what I believe to be insider trading, and zero rate exploitative brokerage platforms. The reason this is at issue is because now the wealthy and political elite are immune from the common lives lived by Main Street America. Again, as evidence is record unemployment and a contracting Economy but nonetheless the market is Bullish.

The secular world has embraced Social Darwinism. Particularly liked the line where the author quotes, “what are people for?” Atheists always tout it would be a better world without religion. Questions like that emerge from secularism. Again asking what people are for assumes an arrogant, elitist, exploitative look at man ie if they are not willing to serve you even as cheap labor they are insignificant. Again, with religion comes the knowledge we are equal in the eyes of God regardless of our gifts or talents. We are not a Mills style utile where people are sacrificed for the benefit of most; all that means is that those in power have still found you a benefit or it’s not your turn.

I could go on and on. But for me, I don’t consume media, but just listen to Jazz, pray, read the Bible, read other Christian work. I see no solution in sight, I only see it getting worse.
 
wage slavery, only slightly better than chattel slavery according to Frederick Douglass.
Can’t quit our jobs cause we’ll lose our health insurance.

I have met many wives who work solely for that. Mine took out close to half my pay.

What I’m saying is I definitely feel feudalized.
 
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Well now we’ve put a pay wall for entry into the middle class and this pay wall is the price of a university education which is getting increasingly steep that only the rich can afford without getting into crippling debt.

One can argue about getting into trade schools but even trade schools are getting prohibitively expensive.
The good thing is that the trades can be picked up without higher education - I know many electricians that went from high school to the union, or went directly to an electrical company and were trained as apprentices. As a Master Electrician they can charge $150/hour.

Higher education is great for critical thinking, but it’s not necessary for a successful life.
 
Higher education is great for critical thinking, but it’s not necessary for a successful life.
To be honest, I have met many trades people who were better at critical thinking than college grads.
 
The problem is that now even trade schools are getting prohibitively expensive. Do unions still do apprenticeships? Non union states usually expect trade school certifications. It’s literally vicious out there.
 
To be honest, I have met many trades people who were better at critical thinking than college grads.
You’re right 😆
The problem is that now even trade schools are getting prohibitively expensive. Do unions still do apprenticeships? Non union states usually expect trade school certifications. It’s literally vicious out there.
Oh wow - maybe this is a regional thing then. Unions still do apprenticeships in the South, I know.
 
I know they do in Hawaii.

It takes a long time for an apprentice to level up to journeyman and in the meantime you don’t really earn that much. Meanwhile you have to supply your own tools which can be expensive.

I have family members who are electricians and HVAC technicians and they tell me this.

They also tell me the potential to earn big is there when in the skilled trades and is okay when one is relatively young but over time it can take a toll on your body.
 
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I have met many wives who work solely for that. Mine took out close to half my pay.
We have close family friends in this situation. He makes good money but works freelance and she works just to get health insurance.
 
Kotkin’s wide-ranging survey of the political and economic trends of the last twenty or thirty years is well researched and well put together. He argues very cogently that the way in which Western countries have long been governed may not last much longer, now that the traditional parties of the moderate left have abandoned their historical support of the industrial working class, in favor of more trendy causes such as immigration, multiculturalism, and the environment.

However, I think there is a weak point in his essay. It sags in the middle. Kotkin could improve his essay, I think, by cutting out the two sections titled Peasant Rebellions and A Brief History of Peasant Rebellions. The intended parallel with the present-day situation is tenuous at best. The overall impact on the reader of this back-to-the-middle-ages interlude is to weaken, not strengthen, his main argument. In addition, of course, that would mean changing the title to something that more closely reflects the important points he is making in his essay.
 
Feudalism can not be compared to modern day economic conditions
These business sharks help millions of young people to survive and get at least some job.
Look at uber, I agree that during Corona Virus uber taxi drivers did not make a lot, but uber eats gives job to millions of people, and young people will definitely have at least some starting income.
The employment system is not highly paid, but for many it’s a beginning to survive and making first steps in gradual ladder of survival in this world.
 
One catch is that capitalists are counting on workers not only to become more productive but also to spend more. That’s because capitalists can’t earn from what is produced unless there are more consumers and each consumes more. And they come from the same working class that spends from what they earn and borrow.

Globally, most people are still poor because 71 pct earn less than $10 a day. But many of them are young and willing to study and work harder so that they can buy not only basic needs but middle class amenities. Their resource and energy demand for that is several times higher than what the planet can provide without ecosystems breaking up and limits to growth taking place.
 
I mentioned that uber helps millions of people by supplying them with job and also helps hundreds of millions with extremely cheap taxi service and fast food delivery.
I absolutely agree that earnings are below survival level both for taxi drivers and food deliverers but for young people, or for unemployed it’s still better than nothing.
I don’t know if you can call it feudalism, it’s more about employers choice.
They can work for uber as extra income, or if no business creativity and other visions then they can work even 16 hours and blame only themselves just bcs they choose the job themselves, no body forces you to work for low earnings, but if nothing else is available, then for starting survival for emigrants, yoyng people it’s better than no job.
But at least it’s a job/service supply for millions of people all over the world.
 
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