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Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women
Second Class is the most important book you will read all year. A political realignment is coming, and it’s my hope that the end result will work in favor of our all-too-neglected American working class. When that realignment comes, Batya and her book will help lead the way.
— Greg Lukianoff, CEO of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, and co-author of The Coddling of the American Mind
Who is the American working class? Do they still have a fair shot at the American Dream? What do they think about their chances to secure the hallmarks of a middle-class life?
While writing this book, Batya Ungar-Sargon visited states across the nation to speak with members of the American working-class fighting tooth and nail to survive. In Second Class, working-class Americans of all races, political orientations, and occupations share their stories—cleaning ladies, health care aides, cops, truck drivers, fast food workers, electricians, and more. In their own words, these working-class Americans explain the struggles and triumphs of their increasingly precarious lives—as well as what policies they think would improve them. Second Class combines deep reporting with a look at the data and expert opinion on America’s emergent class divide, in which the most basic elements of a secure and stable life are increasingly out of reach for those without a college education.
America has broken its contract with its laboring class. So, how do we get back to the American Dream? How do we once again become the land of opportunity, the promised land where hard work and commitment to family are enough to protect you from poverty? It’s not that hard actually. All it would take, as this book illustrates, is for those in power to once again respect the dignity of work—and the American worker.
226 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 2, 2024
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April 2, 2024
Batya Ungar-Sargon’s stated purpose in writing the book was to find and understand the working men and women who have historically occupied the middle class, “which I use in this book as a description of a lifestyle that includes a home, a retirement, adequate health care, and greater opportunities for one’s children – in other words, the American Dream.” “I wanted to know if working-class Americans still had a fair shot [at it]….”
It’s a noble and timely objective as I believe, as I think she does, that America has always been defined by its working class, not the far-right or far-left elites who seem to get so much of the attention today.
She never discloses her methodology for finding her subjects, or selecting which stories to tell, but I think she did a very good job, on balance. The stories are all different, but all are wrapped around a core of authenticity and sincerity that I believe has always defined this group of people.
A couple of things struck me as common themes throughout each of these stories. One is the desire for security, which I have found, after seven decades of life, is at the top of everyone’s priority list, no exceptions.
The second theme is how little most people are consumed with politics. Judging from the news you’d be forgiven to conclude that the opposite is true. Most people, however, just don’t wake up every day wanting to fight the political wars. “…but politics isn’t very important to people. They’re focused on their job, their family, their home, and their community.”
And that, in turn, has created one of the greatest sources of polarization in America today. While politics used to turn on economics, it now turns on social identity. And that’s just not where people live. And it’s not just the working class documented here. It’s everyone other than the politicians and the elite on both sides of the political spectrum.
In Part II of the book, she addresses two important issues facing all working people which neither political party addresses adequately or appropriately - immigration and health care. On the issue of immigration, the dividing line between us is not empathy or racism. It’s economic. The relevant question should not be what either party is doing on immigration, but what is it doing to help working people.
On the health care front, the evidence is overwhelming that the privatization of health care does not compensate for the added bureaucratic costs and executive overhead that privatization creates. Health care, to most Americans, I believe, is a right of human dignity in the same sense that police protection is.
The unrelenting focus on social identity among progressive and conservative elites and the politicians is tearing the country apart. But the good news from her interviews is that people are not as polarized on the issues of social identity as the media would have us believe. We aren’t all homophobic, or misogynists, or racists. Those people exist, for sure, and should be rooted out, and there are some differences in perspective among the rest of us, but most people are just tired of being reminded of these issues with every breath we take. In the end, “Polarization in this country is an elite phenomenon.”
One of the author’s primary conclusions is that the dividing line in the country today is the college degree. I agree, but only to a point. I grew up in what the author would call an upper working-class neighborhood. Most of our neighbors showered after work, not before, but they were able to lead decent, stable lives. Few of them had college degrees. And the reality is that those neighborhoods don’t exist anymore.
I tend to see the real divide as between the wage-earners and the owners of capital. No wage-earner has any security today, no matter how big their paycheck may be. It is the owners of capital who own Washington and control the economy. It is the owners of capital, and the monopolies that they now use to pursue their me-first agenda that are behind the problem’s addressed in this book (e.g., immigration, housing, health care, etc.).
On immigration, for example, it is the owners of capital, which generally include the loudest voices on the left and the right, that are forcing employers to push wages to the lowest possible level, legally or not. And it is the same monopolies which are protecting private medical and pharma companies at the expense of American health and human decency.
In the end, the author concludes that “Both [political parties] have abandoned the working class whose labor we all rely on to survive.” A major political realignment will ultimately have to occur. “It’s disgusting – and unsustainable. You can’t have a democracy where the majority of voters have no party to vote for that represents their interests. Something has to give.”
Hear, hear!
It’s a quick read. I read it in one day. It is very well-written, very well composed, and is informative without ever getting preachy. Perhaps the ultimate testament to the author’s skill and sincerity is that after having read it, I have no idea what her political affiliation is, if she even has one. Worthy of emulation. I’m glad I read it.
It’s a noble and timely objective as I believe, as I think she does, that America has always been defined by its working class, not the far-right or far-left elites who seem to get so much of the attention today.
She never discloses her methodology for finding her subjects, or selecting which stories to tell, but I think she did a very good job, on balance. The stories are all different, but all are wrapped around a core of authenticity and sincerity that I believe has always defined this group of people.
A couple of things struck me as common themes throughout each of these stories. One is the desire for security, which I have found, after seven decades of life, is at the top of everyone’s priority list, no exceptions.
The second theme is how little most people are consumed with politics. Judging from the news you’d be forgiven to conclude that the opposite is true. Most people, however, just don’t wake up every day wanting to fight the political wars. “…but politics isn’t very important to people. They’re focused on their job, their family, their home, and their community.”
And that, in turn, has created one of the greatest sources of polarization in America today. While politics used to turn on economics, it now turns on social identity. And that’s just not where people live. And it’s not just the working class documented here. It’s everyone other than the politicians and the elite on both sides of the political spectrum.
In Part II of the book, she addresses two important issues facing all working people which neither political party addresses adequately or appropriately - immigration and health care. On the issue of immigration, the dividing line between us is not empathy or racism. It’s economic. The relevant question should not be what either party is doing on immigration, but what is it doing to help working people.
On the health care front, the evidence is overwhelming that the privatization of health care does not compensate for the added bureaucratic costs and executive overhead that privatization creates. Health care, to most Americans, I believe, is a right of human dignity in the same sense that police protection is.
The unrelenting focus on social identity among progressive and conservative elites and the politicians is tearing the country apart. But the good news from her interviews is that people are not as polarized on the issues of social identity as the media would have us believe. We aren’t all homophobic, or misogynists, or racists. Those people exist, for sure, and should be rooted out, and there are some differences in perspective among the rest of us, but most people are just tired of being reminded of these issues with every breath we take. In the end, “Polarization in this country is an elite phenomenon.”
One of the author’s primary conclusions is that the dividing line in the country today is the college degree. I agree, but only to a point. I grew up in what the author would call an upper working-class neighborhood. Most of our neighbors showered after work, not before, but they were able to lead decent, stable lives. Few of them had college degrees. And the reality is that those neighborhoods don’t exist anymore.
I tend to see the real divide as between the wage-earners and the owners of capital. No wage-earner has any security today, no matter how big their paycheck may be. It is the owners of capital who own Washington and control the economy. It is the owners of capital, and the monopolies that they now use to pursue their me-first agenda that are behind the problem’s addressed in this book (e.g., immigration, housing, health care, etc.).
On immigration, for example, it is the owners of capital, which generally include the loudest voices on the left and the right, that are forcing employers to push wages to the lowest possible level, legally or not. And it is the same monopolies which are protecting private medical and pharma companies at the expense of American health and human decency.
In the end, the author concludes that “Both [political parties] have abandoned the working class whose labor we all rely on to survive.” A major political realignment will ultimately have to occur. “It’s disgusting – and unsustainable. You can’t have a democracy where the majority of voters have no party to vote for that represents their interests. Something has to give.”
Hear, hear!
It’s a quick read. I read it in one day. It is very well-written, very well composed, and is informative without ever getting preachy. Perhaps the ultimate testament to the author’s skill and sincerity is that after having read it, I have no idea what her political affiliation is, if she even has one. Worthy of emulation. I’m glad I read it.
December 26, 2024
There’s nothing I disagree with in this book but it’s all anecdotal interviews which gets a bit tedious.
With all the culture war horse shit dominating the media landscape it’s increasingly difficult to see through window dressing to the core issues that affect us all.
People are so caught up in the left vs. Right, male vs. Female, black vs white they don’t realize that none of us is being truly represented. I think the majority of people would be somewhere in the middle of the left/right spectrum based on policy.
Government and corporate interests are doing everything they can to maximize their bottom line and give working people an ever shrinking piece of the pie.
Im not talking crazy conspiracy stuff, just measurable outcomes of economic practices over the last century.
Globalization exporting good paying manufacturing jobs overseas, importing millions of foreign workers as an economic underclass to work for unliveable wages. The prerequisite college degree to even apply for jobs that don’t require them.
Also, zoning laws that prevent the construction of duplexes and multiple unit properties that would be an attainable entry point to home ownership in favour of large tracts designated for single family homes that are far beyond the means of working people today.
We are becoming a caste system where the prospect of movement to a higher caste is nearly impossible.
This is a simplistic view but it seems sound, especially considering all the other reading I’ve done.
Getting into the trades seems to be the last bastion for a “middle class” lifestyle for the working class.
With all the culture war horse shit dominating the media landscape it’s increasingly difficult to see through window dressing to the core issues that affect us all.
People are so caught up in the left vs. Right, male vs. Female, black vs white they don’t realize that none of us is being truly represented. I think the majority of people would be somewhere in the middle of the left/right spectrum based on policy.
Government and corporate interests are doing everything they can to maximize their bottom line and give working people an ever shrinking piece of the pie.
Im not talking crazy conspiracy stuff, just measurable outcomes of economic practices over the last century.
Globalization exporting good paying manufacturing jobs overseas, importing millions of foreign workers as an economic underclass to work for unliveable wages. The prerequisite college degree to even apply for jobs that don’t require them.
Also, zoning laws that prevent the construction of duplexes and multiple unit properties that would be an attainable entry point to home ownership in favour of large tracts designated for single family homes that are far beyond the means of working people today.
We are becoming a caste system where the prospect of movement to a higher caste is nearly impossible.
This is a simplistic view but it seems sound, especially considering all the other reading I’ve done.
Getting into the trades seems to be the last bastion for a “middle class” lifestyle for the working class.
April 21, 2024
This is a superb telling of how the majority working class has been disregarded by elites on left and right. It was a little slow in the beginning but rose to a crescendo with the stories of actual people. It should be a call to action by all Americans before we lose the faith of the bulwark of society - the working class. How do we create hope? Give equal access to the future? Batya’s podcast with Bari Weiss was also superb. It gives such insights to the world we are living in.
April 7, 2024
I was excited to get this. The premise is that the cultural divide in America is not about race, sex, geography or religion, but class, even though the premise of our country is that it is classless.
Sure, a hillbilly from Ohio can graduate from Yale Law School and become a U.S. Senator, just as a hot-blooded Appalachian from North Georgia can become a bestselling author and public speaker. But there are plenty of working men and women who are struggling to make ends meet today.
That has always been the case. My great grandmother, with whom I had an inseparable bond, lived almost her entire life without running water. In her late 80s, she was fixing her own roof and cleaning out chicken houses for extra cash. But she also owned her home, ancient and clapboard with warped floors, a wood-burning stove, and no closets. It was hers, along with the stone well, accessed by a rope and bucket, the outhouse, and the garden.
Home ownership is a fantasy for most young people today, as is a decent retirement and affordable healthcare. Over half the country is one serious illness away from financial ruin.
The fact that those in private equity or international relations or business consulting don’t know this or seem to care is a powder keg. You can’t change the economy of a nation - move manufacturing out, and move in millions of poor, illiterate immigrants to drive wages down in the jobs that are left - without sparking backlash that could lead to revolution. This is how you end up with communism, firing squads, and squalor like Americans have never known.
I wish Batya, whom I like a lot, had made that point earlier and more forcefully instead of sharing one sad story after another. Yes, we get it, if you live outside a few blocks of Manhattan or the suburbs of DC, you know someone who has been, or currently is in a situation like the ones Batya tells. It’s not uncommon.
In some cases, I think she glossed over some root causes - single-parenting primary among them. But rather than give biographies, it would’ve been nice to get to the history of the divide, where it’s leading, and how to turn it around a little quicker.
This is a fast, two-sitting read. You’ll like it as long as you understand what you’re seeing.
Sure, a hillbilly from Ohio can graduate from Yale Law School and become a U.S. Senator, just as a hot-blooded Appalachian from North Georgia can become a bestselling author and public speaker. But there are plenty of working men and women who are struggling to make ends meet today.
That has always been the case. My great grandmother, with whom I had an inseparable bond, lived almost her entire life without running water. In her late 80s, she was fixing her own roof and cleaning out chicken houses for extra cash. But she also owned her home, ancient and clapboard with warped floors, a wood-burning stove, and no closets. It was hers, along with the stone well, accessed by a rope and bucket, the outhouse, and the garden.
Home ownership is a fantasy for most young people today, as is a decent retirement and affordable healthcare. Over half the country is one serious illness away from financial ruin.
The fact that those in private equity or international relations or business consulting don’t know this or seem to care is a powder keg. You can’t change the economy of a nation - move manufacturing out, and move in millions of poor, illiterate immigrants to drive wages down in the jobs that are left - without sparking backlash that could lead to revolution. This is how you end up with communism, firing squads, and squalor like Americans have never known.
I wish Batya, whom I like a lot, had made that point earlier and more forcefully instead of sharing one sad story after another. Yes, we get it, if you live outside a few blocks of Manhattan or the suburbs of DC, you know someone who has been, or currently is in a situation like the ones Batya tells. It’s not uncommon.
In some cases, I think she glossed over some root causes - single-parenting primary among them. But rather than give biographies, it would’ve been nice to get to the history of the divide, where it’s leading, and how to turn it around a little quicker.
This is a fast, two-sitting read. You’ll like it as long as you understand what you’re seeing.
May 19, 2024
Good premise, poor execution. Editor should be fired for a number of typos and poor grammar. Use of certain statistics was flawed. Terribly repetitive (literally repeating entire paragraph long quotes at various points).
October 17, 2024
This book was sobering and thought provoking to read. Throughout the author did an excellent job incorporating different political viewpoints and voices of lower class Americans throughout the country and using their personal stories, giving them a voice. I was touched by their stories and the realities that keep the American Dream out of reach for so many.
“We made a college degree the gatekeeper of a middle-class life”.
My husband works a trade job and it is shocking the disrespect people have towards his work. He gets up and works hard to provide for his family. There is nothing wrong with that, in fact it is noble. People working hard to provide is not shameful it is beautiful. So many people sacrifice and work jobs they are underpaid in, in order to put food on the table and keep the lights on. I deeply respect those who work so hard.
I hope people will read this book and recognize that we are all human beings and as such we have the opportunity to help others rise, be treated with dignity, and see the efforts of the thousands of working class Americans who make our personal life luxuries possible. No one should be treated as a second class citizen.
Social disparities exist and we can be the ones who talk about the issue and then take action to help others
“We made a college degree the gatekeeper of a middle-class life”.
My husband works a trade job and it is shocking the disrespect people have towards his work. He gets up and works hard to provide for his family. There is nothing wrong with that, in fact it is noble. People working hard to provide is not shameful it is beautiful. So many people sacrifice and work jobs they are underpaid in, in order to put food on the table and keep the lights on. I deeply respect those who work so hard.
I hope people will read this book and recognize that we are all human beings and as such we have the opportunity to help others rise, be treated with dignity, and see the efforts of the thousands of working class Americans who make our personal life luxuries possible. No one should be treated as a second class citizen.
Social disparities exist and we can be the ones who talk about the issue and then take action to help others
August 31, 2024
Well written book that is disturbing as to how our country has failed the working class. Neither political party is addressing their needs of more opportunities. Most of the working class interviewed here are not thinking that more government handouts would help them. What would really help them are more opportunities to achieve the American dream. Personal stories are shared about the precarious lives of the working class. The dignity of work needs to be held in higher esteem by the representatives in our country.
August 18, 2024
Excellent journalism with a fair and important look at Americas working class. I learned a lot and appreciated the depth of this book!!
October 14, 2024
Very interesting and well researched book about the struggles of the working class and how they affect all the classes. Something's gotta give.
June 30, 2024
For a topic that much ink has been spilled on, I felt the author failed to establish really anything new. The thesis was hard to follow and often contradicted itself. I agree with much of what the author was suggesting, but just didn’t find the argumentation or supporting information to succeed at building the case. The book was more ‘that’ the elites betrayed them, not ‘how’.
Lots of grammatical errors, repeated stories down to the quote, and just poor editing.
The personal stories were interesting and I found the section discussing Las Vegas’ strong labor union really fascinating. A deeper dive into that microcosm would be fun!
Lots of grammatical errors, repeated stories down to the quote, and just poor editing.
The personal stories were interesting and I found the section discussing Las Vegas’ strong labor union really fascinating. A deeper dive into that microcosm would be fun!
May 4, 2024
Thought provoking about an important issue. Not much in the way of possible solutions
January 20, 2025
Although I don't agree with the politics of the author, this book was very eye-opening on what is going on in our country in terms of the working class. She covered people in all different geographic locations, with different political beliefs, religions, etc. and many of them are all dealing with the same issues - such as never being able to afford their own home. I learned a lot about unions, specifically how the hospitality workers in Vegas make a living wage due to their union. I would definitely recommend this book/audiobook.
March 22, 2025
Second Class, Batya Ungar-Sargon, author and narrator
Batya Ungar-Sargon describes herself as a Trump supporting Democrat. In this book, she explains why she has soured on the policies of the left, in some instances, but remained with them in others. She explores life through the experiences of several working-class families and has discovered that the causes they support also make them support Trump, though they may be Democrats. They would not have an abortion but believe in abortion rights. They would not close the border to legal immigration but are against illegal immigration. They believe in doing a job well but cannot get a job because of artificial requirements set up by certain politicians. They believe in social programs, but would rather not be the recipients, though they have often been forced to take part in them because of unexpected disasters.
The author has appeared on many television shows to express her views, and she does it fairly, in a way everyone can understand her point of view. It is hard to object to her ideas, even when you don’t agree completely, because she is so level-headed. Her book is a deeper dive into her personal philosophy as it examines the lives of real people and their suffering. She explores the idea of the American dream and what it means to those searching for it.
The first part of her book emphasizes the plight of several individuals and families. Most are into their middle age; they are both male and female; they are from all different backgrounds. Many had troubled backgrounds that may have perpetuated their situation unintentionally. Many made choices that were definitely going to set them on a path to failure, rather than success, but I didn’t get the feeling that many understood that their own choices were part of the problems in their lives. Some excuses seemed frivolous to me, because I had to make similar choices, but did not run from the job as they did. If the commute was too long, I did not quit, if the boss insulted me, I turned the other cheek in order to stay solvent. Deciding to become a parent, with or without a partner, definitely had negative effects on some of the people that had trouble managing. Single parents struggle more, regardless of whether or not they were alone because they had a child out of wedlock or were divorced or widowed. I think we have all been in situations that require hard choices, how we handle them often decides our fate. Still, many of the reasons that people left their jobs were honorable, like wanting to devote more time to their kids, or being forced to care for a sick relative, etc. Some simply did not have any better choices than the ones they made.
Most of the people interviewed made choices that were not the recipes needed for success, but often they were their only options. Others simply blamed their circumstances on others, or on outside circumstances, and did not assess the wiseness of their own actions. Most insisted that they did not want handouts; most believed they deserved them when they accepted them, however, and believed they should have been greater, offering a real chance to return to society as a productive participant.
The second part of the book was about the ways poverty and second-class citizenhood have been promoted by society with its rules and regulations, and standards and requirements for ultimate success. The author particularly pointed to Obama’s demands that everyone worth his salt had to have a college education, whether or not the job being sought warranted it. She also pointed to Hoover’s zoning laws which purposefully isolated communities, so they became homogeneous created communities of those who lived in particular bubbles. The elite isolated themselves. Red-lining and the requirement to build only single-family, unattached homes on certain parcels, in certain neighborhoods, effectively eliminated the possibility of home ownership for many in the working class. It also limited the number of housing units, ultimately leading to today’s high prices and shortage of housing options. I, myself, grew up in a multifamily, attached house, and it helped my parents survive and provided me with a happy and safe space in which to live.
The author has done a great deal of research into the lives of real people and has followed them to see if their lives have improved or declined. She found examples of both. Some were living better, but many were not. She made positive suggestions to improve the situation for the working class, so often overlooked and looked down upon. She addressed the idea of coupling salaries to the standards of living in the places of employment, instead of a mandated minimum wage. It seemed the most sensible to me. For instance, in NYC, the salary needed to live is simply much higher than it would be in a small town, outside of a major city or state. It would require far different salaries for a family to not only survive, but to succeed in different places.
In the end, I did not feel that the American dream had turned into a nightmare or had disappeared. I believe that those who still dream of it have to make choices that do not preclude it. If you are unwilling to put in the time or effort to succeed, you simply will fail. Those who work hard and fail, sometimes put their efforts in places that do not reward them fairly. Others are defeated by the system and the draconian rules and regulations that the lawmakers should definitely change. The author points out that in Las Vegas, workers are thriving.
Las Vegas is a place where workers are needed and courted by both agencies, schools and businesses. The workers are guaranteed good salaries and benefits. They do have a union, but it does not defeat its own purpose. They do negotiate. The casinos need employees, the restaurants need employees, the hotels need employees, so they work with culinary schools and high schools that have students who wish to enter their workforce. They pay for their further studies and provide training. However, if a person looking for employment chooses to reside in a city with vast numbers of illegal immigrants, they will likely fail to find a good position. The illegal immigrant gets benefits that American citizens do not, and the immigrant works for far less money than an American needs to survive.
Programs need to be mandated that even out the playing field for Americans vs Illegals, singles vs marrieds, with or without children. There is also a need for programs that deal with the unexpected disaster, so that those suffering can return to their former place in society without losing everything. There is a need to reward the two-parent family to encourage more people to marry. Married couples seem to enjoy more successful, happy lives. Two men seem to earn more than two women in a family, however. Social change is necessary, but social change is hard to come by. Having children out of wedlock makes it harder to succeed. Single parents have a harder time when it comes to deal with any crisis because there is no one else to lean on for aid. Zoning laws have to be changed so that more multifamily dwellings are built to house the homeless. Not all homeless people are homeless because of crime or drug addiction. Some fall on hard times too. Trade schools have to be built, and attendance has to be encouraged. We need to bring employment back to America for Americans.
Not every job requires a college education so it should not be forced upon the job seekers because it excludes those without one. Obama’s idea to make everyone work in a knowledge industry, and his need for globalization, forced out all the trade industries and has negatively affected the workplace and the middle and lower classes. It has made it impossible for the middle class and lower class to improve their lot in life. Mass immigration has made the supply too great and has driven down wages. He opened the borders too wide and dramatically changed the playing field. Biden followed his negative example. The Democrats have not only caused identity politics to harm society, but they have also increased the class divide with their elitism, although they pretend that they are not the elite. Americans who work in a trade are not the ignorant. The Americans who go to restaurants like the Olive Garden, should not be ashamed of being able to take their family there, instead of a fancier establishment. They should be proud of what they have accomplished and encourage others to follow their example. They have succeeded and are working toward their American dream.
The author refers to the diploma divide and blames the disappearance of jobs that we used to encourage on that principle. It has caused an increase in anxiety in the working class and an increase in the number of suicides that are tied to the loss of self-worth, the loss that Obama encouraged when he made it dependent on your education choices and subsequent employment. His new standards not only destroyed the working-classes, it made them ashamed to be part of it.
For these reasons and others, the author is a Trump-supporting Democrat. The book is enlightening, informative, compassionate and balanced.
Batya Ungar-Sargon describes herself as a Trump supporting Democrat. In this book, she explains why she has soured on the policies of the left, in some instances, but remained with them in others. She explores life through the experiences of several working-class families and has discovered that the causes they support also make them support Trump, though they may be Democrats. They would not have an abortion but believe in abortion rights. They would not close the border to legal immigration but are against illegal immigration. They believe in doing a job well but cannot get a job because of artificial requirements set up by certain politicians. They believe in social programs, but would rather not be the recipients, though they have often been forced to take part in them because of unexpected disasters.
The author has appeared on many television shows to express her views, and she does it fairly, in a way everyone can understand her point of view. It is hard to object to her ideas, even when you don’t agree completely, because she is so level-headed. Her book is a deeper dive into her personal philosophy as it examines the lives of real people and their suffering. She explores the idea of the American dream and what it means to those searching for it.
The first part of her book emphasizes the plight of several individuals and families. Most are into their middle age; they are both male and female; they are from all different backgrounds. Many had troubled backgrounds that may have perpetuated their situation unintentionally. Many made choices that were definitely going to set them on a path to failure, rather than success, but I didn’t get the feeling that many understood that their own choices were part of the problems in their lives. Some excuses seemed frivolous to me, because I had to make similar choices, but did not run from the job as they did. If the commute was too long, I did not quit, if the boss insulted me, I turned the other cheek in order to stay solvent. Deciding to become a parent, with or without a partner, definitely had negative effects on some of the people that had trouble managing. Single parents struggle more, regardless of whether or not they were alone because they had a child out of wedlock or were divorced or widowed. I think we have all been in situations that require hard choices, how we handle them often decides our fate. Still, many of the reasons that people left their jobs were honorable, like wanting to devote more time to their kids, or being forced to care for a sick relative, etc. Some simply did not have any better choices than the ones they made.
Most of the people interviewed made choices that were not the recipes needed for success, but often they were their only options. Others simply blamed their circumstances on others, or on outside circumstances, and did not assess the wiseness of their own actions. Most insisted that they did not want handouts; most believed they deserved them when they accepted them, however, and believed they should have been greater, offering a real chance to return to society as a productive participant.
The second part of the book was about the ways poverty and second-class citizenhood have been promoted by society with its rules and regulations, and standards and requirements for ultimate success. The author particularly pointed to Obama’s demands that everyone worth his salt had to have a college education, whether or not the job being sought warranted it. She also pointed to Hoover’s zoning laws which purposefully isolated communities, so they became homogeneous created communities of those who lived in particular bubbles. The elite isolated themselves. Red-lining and the requirement to build only single-family, unattached homes on certain parcels, in certain neighborhoods, effectively eliminated the possibility of home ownership for many in the working class. It also limited the number of housing units, ultimately leading to today’s high prices and shortage of housing options. I, myself, grew up in a multifamily, attached house, and it helped my parents survive and provided me with a happy and safe space in which to live.
The author has done a great deal of research into the lives of real people and has followed them to see if their lives have improved or declined. She found examples of both. Some were living better, but many were not. She made positive suggestions to improve the situation for the working class, so often overlooked and looked down upon. She addressed the idea of coupling salaries to the standards of living in the places of employment, instead of a mandated minimum wage. It seemed the most sensible to me. For instance, in NYC, the salary needed to live is simply much higher than it would be in a small town, outside of a major city or state. It would require far different salaries for a family to not only survive, but to succeed in different places.
In the end, I did not feel that the American dream had turned into a nightmare or had disappeared. I believe that those who still dream of it have to make choices that do not preclude it. If you are unwilling to put in the time or effort to succeed, you simply will fail. Those who work hard and fail, sometimes put their efforts in places that do not reward them fairly. Others are defeated by the system and the draconian rules and regulations that the lawmakers should definitely change. The author points out that in Las Vegas, workers are thriving.
Las Vegas is a place where workers are needed and courted by both agencies, schools and businesses. The workers are guaranteed good salaries and benefits. They do have a union, but it does not defeat its own purpose. They do negotiate. The casinos need employees, the restaurants need employees, the hotels need employees, so they work with culinary schools and high schools that have students who wish to enter their workforce. They pay for their further studies and provide training. However, if a person looking for employment chooses to reside in a city with vast numbers of illegal immigrants, they will likely fail to find a good position. The illegal immigrant gets benefits that American citizens do not, and the immigrant works for far less money than an American needs to survive.
Programs need to be mandated that even out the playing field for Americans vs Illegals, singles vs marrieds, with or without children. There is also a need for programs that deal with the unexpected disaster, so that those suffering can return to their former place in society without losing everything. There is a need to reward the two-parent family to encourage more people to marry. Married couples seem to enjoy more successful, happy lives. Two men seem to earn more than two women in a family, however. Social change is necessary, but social change is hard to come by. Having children out of wedlock makes it harder to succeed. Single parents have a harder time when it comes to deal with any crisis because there is no one else to lean on for aid. Zoning laws have to be changed so that more multifamily dwellings are built to house the homeless. Not all homeless people are homeless because of crime or drug addiction. Some fall on hard times too. Trade schools have to be built, and attendance has to be encouraged. We need to bring employment back to America for Americans.
Not every job requires a college education so it should not be forced upon the job seekers because it excludes those without one. Obama’s idea to make everyone work in a knowledge industry, and his need for globalization, forced out all the trade industries and has negatively affected the workplace and the middle and lower classes. It has made it impossible for the middle class and lower class to improve their lot in life. Mass immigration has made the supply too great and has driven down wages. He opened the borders too wide and dramatically changed the playing field. Biden followed his negative example. The Democrats have not only caused identity politics to harm society, but they have also increased the class divide with their elitism, although they pretend that they are not the elite. Americans who work in a trade are not the ignorant. The Americans who go to restaurants like the Olive Garden, should not be ashamed of being able to take their family there, instead of a fancier establishment. They should be proud of what they have accomplished and encourage others to follow their example. They have succeeded and are working toward their American dream.
The author refers to the diploma divide and blames the disappearance of jobs that we used to encourage on that principle. It has caused an increase in anxiety in the working class and an increase in the number of suicides that are tied to the loss of self-worth, the loss that Obama encouraged when he made it dependent on your education choices and subsequent employment. His new standards not only destroyed the working-classes, it made them ashamed to be part of it.
For these reasons and others, the author is a Trump-supporting Democrat. The book is enlightening, informative, compassionate and balanced.
December 19, 2024
This book is very general and relies heavily on narrative to make a point. I don't think it accurately tells how elites betrayed the working class. It points out the issues but goes no deeper. For those looking for data and history to back up this author's premise I direct you to End Times: Elites, Counter-Elites, and the Path of Political Disintegration by Peter Turchin and Ours Was the Shining Future: The Story of the American Dream by David Leonhardt.
April 15, 2024
I looked forward to reading this book as I had heard Ungar-Sagon, an opinion editor at Newsweek, speak about this subject on various media outlets. I was attracted to her project, an investigation as to who members of the working class are and if the American Dream is attainable to them. The author's research involved travel across the country for a year, interviewing 100 workers, and was complimented by the research of economists, public policy makers, labor statistics with much data analysis. As a result of this study, the working class for her is defined as the "sector of American society that works in jobs that require physical labor or skills rather than whatever it is people claim to have learned in college, who haven't managed to become rich". While the 1970s was the high point of workers' wages, the 1990s with President Clinton's NAFTA policy began the descent: manufacturing jobs were out-sourced to Mexico and China. Next, President Obama's administration declared that those jobs were not coming back; they were exchanged for a credentialed (college educated) elite as funding for vocational education ended. Finally, President Biden "sealed the deal" of relegating American workers to second class status by opening the borders to import immigrants to compete with and replace those same American workers. This created a labor surplus which added to employers' power, the power to keep wages low. While college was seen as the gateway to achieving higher wages and the middle class, it has created the impediment to it for many by requiring a degree to participate in the labor market. While some of my and the author's assumptions were validated, others were not. Of the people interviewed, most tolerated the LGBTQ movement but worried about its extension, the trans-gender one. Mostly pro life, they understood the instances requiring an abortion. Often deemed racist, they accepted the lifestyles, including the race of others and prized the privilege of American citizenship. What became evident is that the working class is diverse in terms of race and ethnicity, religion and politics but alike in the fact that they work hard and find dignity in so doing. Ungar-Sagon's research revealed levels within the working class: the "strugglers" for whom every day is a brutal challenge; the "floaters" who manage to get by through various means; and the "rising" those workers on the verge of successfully maintaining a comfortable but modest middle class lifestyle. Achieving the American Dream seems to be more alive in red states than blue ones where the cost of living especially housing is lower and the hopes for succeeding independent of welfare higher. The consensus among the workers involved in this study is that opportunities in jobs, housing, health care rather than government assistance is their idea of making it America. Regarding health care, there was skepticism of a single-payor system in favor of employer based private insurance. For jobs, a coherent trade policy and limited, legal immigration would improve opportunities and worker power. Local zoning reform rather than an all-of-government approach could address housing shortages. Simply put, the workers of this book, some of whom benefitted from unionization (the best of which is in Las Vegas), seek access to jobs that enable them to provide for their families, a better future for their children, affordable health care access, the ability to retire in dignity, and for their voices to be heard by political representatives and policy makers, our ruling elites.
November 14, 2024
In this book, Dr. Ungar-Sargon documents interviews of working class people across the country and follows up with a section on policy post-mortem and recommendations based on what those working-class interviewees had to say. Those interviewed covered a variety of occupations and ranged from barely hanging on to successful. Furthermore, they also covered a wide spectrum of political beliefs. Given that a common thread among the interviews was a failure of the ruling elites to listen to the concerns of the working class, I appreciate Dr. Ungar-Sargon’s efforts to give them a voice.
In the past, high school students could prepare for multiple career paths, with some doing vocational studies and others preparing for college. Since my own time in high school in the mid to late 80s, there has been a shift in which students have been pushed in the direction of college, whether they are college material or not. Dr. Ungar-Sargon attributes this to a deliberate effort to shift the economy toward knowledge-industry jobs. A consequence of this has been the disappearance of jobs not requiring college education and a reduction in wages for those jobs that remain. Although there are some blue-collar jobs that pay well, young people have been discouraged from pursuing them. After all, who wants to be perceived as an uneducated loser? Furthermore, because college was perceived as developing soft skills, even when there is a mismatch between a job’s responsibilities and what is taught in college, college education was increasingly required for such jobs. One result was that experienced workers lacking college degrees often hit glass ceilings, and individuals who lacked industry experience but had a college degree would get the management jobs. In recent years, I have seen some reversal of this trend. As the cost of college has skyrocketed and colleges have gained a reputation as woke indoctrination camps, young people have started returning to the trades, and employers have been dropping the degree requirements for jobs that don’t really need them. Bravo! Hopefully, this trend continues. Not everybody is college material, but they still deserve a place at the table.
The working class people Dr. Ungar-Sargon interviewed were sympathetic to immigrants while opposing unrestricted illegal immigration. On the one hand, they empathize with them as fellow humans seeking a better life. On the other hand, though, the recognize that the resulting glut of unskilled workers drives down wages. For example, Dr. Ungar-Sargon discusses how some employers pay illegal immigrants less than minimum wage, thereby making it difficult for competitors to pay living wages and still remain in business. High levels of illegal immigration also exacerbate the shortage of housing, driving up prices to levels increasingly unaffordable for the working class. And the elites only respond to their complaints by accusing them of racism; in short, the elites are not listening. To support her arguments about immigration, Dr. Ungar-Sargon provides two graphs:
• Percent of US population that is foreign born, 1850 to 2018
• Percent of GDP going into wages, 1950 to @2014
In 2018, 13.7% of the US population was foreign born, a value approaching the previous peak value of 14.3% in 1890, the height of the Gilded Age, a time of robber barons and extreme inequality. The minimum percentage was 4.7% in 1970, after which there has been a steady increase in the foreign-born population. In that same period, the percent of Gross Domestic Product going into wages fell from 51.5% in 1970 to 42% in 2015. To summarize, the larger the immigrant population, the smaller the piece of the pie that goes to the workers.
Not surprisingly, the interviewed workers were in favor of a government safety net but objected to dependency. For example, Dr. Ungar-Sargon discusses what she calls a benefits cliff. Government safety net and benefits cliff that encourages dependency. There is a no-man’s land between poor enough to obtain government benefits and well off enough to make it without assistance. Moving into it means a complete loss of benefits such as SNAP, childcare subsidies, health insurance benefits. Lower income workers would like to see a gradual tapering of benefits rather than the complete cutoff that is the case today. The current situation discourages workers from advancing themselves to the point where they lose benefits they can’t afford to do without. In addition, these workers strongly believe that safety net benefits should be temporary to support a transition from hard times to stable times. They do not like it when money needed elsewhere goes to support those who choose not to work. In addition to these concerns, Dr. Ungar-Sargon has a recommendation of her own. Benefits should be adjusted to encourage marriage because of the known link between financial stability and marriage. I couldn’t agree more. While marriage isn’t a panacea for the world’s ills, it doesn’t just provide financial stability; it also provides stability for the next generation.
The working class is being crushed by the high cost of housing, and areas where the cost of housing is the highest are also the areas with the highest levels of homelessness. Interestingly enough, Dr. Ungar-Sargon ties part of this problem to historical factors. For example, prior to 1916, light touch density was the norm, featuring a mix of duplexes, townhouses and triple-deckers that were affordable for working families. The current dominance of single-family detached homes is a product of several factors often rooted in past racism:
• In response to a 1916 Supreme Court ruling that the 14th Amendment prohibited racism in zoning policy, residential zoning increasingly required single-family detached housing, pricing Blacks, immigrants and other undesirable out of the housing market.
• The redlining of neighborhoods with minority populations deprived these minorities of FHA loans.
• In response to a 1948 Supreme Court decision declaring racial covenants unconstitutional, the NIMBY movement arose to housing affordable to the lower classes out of detached home neighborhoods. Because I work in the electric power industry, I am most familiar with the NIMBY movement’s efforts to keep power plants from being built but have seen it used to prevent the construction of affordable housing.
As a result of these factors, 78 percent of land zoned residential is for single-family detached homes, resulting in limited housing availability. I don’t think Dr. Ungar-Sargon is critical of detached housing, only its emphasis to the exclusion of housing affordable for the working poor.
One final issue Dr. Ungar-Sargon addresses is political polarization. She sees it as an elite phenomenon, with the working-class voters recognizing that some of their interests are served one party and other interests are served by another. When it comes to the gentry liberalism of the Democratic Party and the gentry conservatism of the Republican Party, the economic interests of the working class have not been well-served, and I firmly believe this contributed to the populist rebellions within the two parties in 2016, with the Democrats feeling the Bern and Donald Trump securing the Republican presidential nomination and winning the election. What has been telling is the resistance of various elites to change that might actually benefit the working classes. That said, I am not convinced that polarization is exclusively an elite issue. Consider how many times someone has lost his job because he was accused of racism because he used the OK hand signal. Or he signed a petition for the wrong cause. The working class may or may not be interested in the culture war, but it certainly is interested in them. Perhaps the outcome of the recent 2024 election here in the US will convince the elites that imposing the will of the few on the many is not a good way to get their votes. I can only hope.
While my occupation as an engineer may well number me within the elite class, my origins are much more humble. My grandparents were farmers, and my maternal grandparents didn’t even own the land they worked. They were tenant farmers and lived out their days in a public housing project. My father worked a factory floor and did service industry work; my mother operated an in-home daycare to close the budget gap. As for me, Uncle Sam paid part of my college expenses with GI Bill after an enlistment in the Navy. So, my roots are working class, and I empathize with the working class. So, I applaud Dr. Ungar-Sargon for listening to the workers she interviewed and for giving them a voice. Hopefully, the elite will actually listen.
In the past, high school students could prepare for multiple career paths, with some doing vocational studies and others preparing for college. Since my own time in high school in the mid to late 80s, there has been a shift in which students have been pushed in the direction of college, whether they are college material or not. Dr. Ungar-Sargon attributes this to a deliberate effort to shift the economy toward knowledge-industry jobs. A consequence of this has been the disappearance of jobs not requiring college education and a reduction in wages for those jobs that remain. Although there are some blue-collar jobs that pay well, young people have been discouraged from pursuing them. After all, who wants to be perceived as an uneducated loser? Furthermore, because college was perceived as developing soft skills, even when there is a mismatch between a job’s responsibilities and what is taught in college, college education was increasingly required for such jobs. One result was that experienced workers lacking college degrees often hit glass ceilings, and individuals who lacked industry experience but had a college degree would get the management jobs. In recent years, I have seen some reversal of this trend. As the cost of college has skyrocketed and colleges have gained a reputation as woke indoctrination camps, young people have started returning to the trades, and employers have been dropping the degree requirements for jobs that don’t really need them. Bravo! Hopefully, this trend continues. Not everybody is college material, but they still deserve a place at the table.
The working class people Dr. Ungar-Sargon interviewed were sympathetic to immigrants while opposing unrestricted illegal immigration. On the one hand, they empathize with them as fellow humans seeking a better life. On the other hand, though, the recognize that the resulting glut of unskilled workers drives down wages. For example, Dr. Ungar-Sargon discusses how some employers pay illegal immigrants less than minimum wage, thereby making it difficult for competitors to pay living wages and still remain in business. High levels of illegal immigration also exacerbate the shortage of housing, driving up prices to levels increasingly unaffordable for the working class. And the elites only respond to their complaints by accusing them of racism; in short, the elites are not listening. To support her arguments about immigration, Dr. Ungar-Sargon provides two graphs:
• Percent of US population that is foreign born, 1850 to 2018
• Percent of GDP going into wages, 1950 to @2014
In 2018, 13.7% of the US population was foreign born, a value approaching the previous peak value of 14.3% in 1890, the height of the Gilded Age, a time of robber barons and extreme inequality. The minimum percentage was 4.7% in 1970, after which there has been a steady increase in the foreign-born population. In that same period, the percent of Gross Domestic Product going into wages fell from 51.5% in 1970 to 42% in 2015. To summarize, the larger the immigrant population, the smaller the piece of the pie that goes to the workers.
Not surprisingly, the interviewed workers were in favor of a government safety net but objected to dependency. For example, Dr. Ungar-Sargon discusses what she calls a benefits cliff. Government safety net and benefits cliff that encourages dependency. There is a no-man’s land between poor enough to obtain government benefits and well off enough to make it without assistance. Moving into it means a complete loss of benefits such as SNAP, childcare subsidies, health insurance benefits. Lower income workers would like to see a gradual tapering of benefits rather than the complete cutoff that is the case today. The current situation discourages workers from advancing themselves to the point where they lose benefits they can’t afford to do without. In addition, these workers strongly believe that safety net benefits should be temporary to support a transition from hard times to stable times. They do not like it when money needed elsewhere goes to support those who choose not to work. In addition to these concerns, Dr. Ungar-Sargon has a recommendation of her own. Benefits should be adjusted to encourage marriage because of the known link between financial stability and marriage. I couldn’t agree more. While marriage isn’t a panacea for the world’s ills, it doesn’t just provide financial stability; it also provides stability for the next generation.
The working class is being crushed by the high cost of housing, and areas where the cost of housing is the highest are also the areas with the highest levels of homelessness. Interestingly enough, Dr. Ungar-Sargon ties part of this problem to historical factors. For example, prior to 1916, light touch density was the norm, featuring a mix of duplexes, townhouses and triple-deckers that were affordable for working families. The current dominance of single-family detached homes is a product of several factors often rooted in past racism:
• In response to a 1916 Supreme Court ruling that the 14th Amendment prohibited racism in zoning policy, residential zoning increasingly required single-family detached housing, pricing Blacks, immigrants and other undesirable out of the housing market.
• The redlining of neighborhoods with minority populations deprived these minorities of FHA loans.
• In response to a 1948 Supreme Court decision declaring racial covenants unconstitutional, the NIMBY movement arose to housing affordable to the lower classes out of detached home neighborhoods. Because I work in the electric power industry, I am most familiar with the NIMBY movement’s efforts to keep power plants from being built but have seen it used to prevent the construction of affordable housing.
As a result of these factors, 78 percent of land zoned residential is for single-family detached homes, resulting in limited housing availability. I don’t think Dr. Ungar-Sargon is critical of detached housing, only its emphasis to the exclusion of housing affordable for the working poor.
One final issue Dr. Ungar-Sargon addresses is political polarization. She sees it as an elite phenomenon, with the working-class voters recognizing that some of their interests are served one party and other interests are served by another. When it comes to the gentry liberalism of the Democratic Party and the gentry conservatism of the Republican Party, the economic interests of the working class have not been well-served, and I firmly believe this contributed to the populist rebellions within the two parties in 2016, with the Democrats feeling the Bern and Donald Trump securing the Republican presidential nomination and winning the election. What has been telling is the resistance of various elites to change that might actually benefit the working classes. That said, I am not convinced that polarization is exclusively an elite issue. Consider how many times someone has lost his job because he was accused of racism because he used the OK hand signal. Or he signed a petition for the wrong cause. The working class may or may not be interested in the culture war, but it certainly is interested in them. Perhaps the outcome of the recent 2024 election here in the US will convince the elites that imposing the will of the few on the many is not a good way to get their votes. I can only hope.
While my occupation as an engineer may well number me within the elite class, my origins are much more humble. My grandparents were farmers, and my maternal grandparents didn’t even own the land they worked. They were tenant farmers and lived out their days in a public housing project. My father worked a factory floor and did service industry work; my mother operated an in-home daycare to close the budget gap. As for me, Uncle Sam paid part of my college expenses with GI Bill after an enlistment in the Navy. So, my roots are working class, and I empathize with the working class. So, I applaud Dr. Ungar-Sargon for listening to the workers she interviewed and for giving them a voice. Hopefully, the elite will actually listen.
July 28, 2024
This book has so much potential with a better editor and not quite such a flippant way with statistics. And most of all, just stick to the facts and keep the politics out of it. The author keeps trying to play the political divide and it just muddies up whatever message she is trying to convey.
January 30, 2025
Since coming across a random podcast discussing Second Class, I have been eager to get my hands on a copy. For a long time, I have been baffled at how otherwise normal and even upstanding people can find it in themselves to support someone as divisive and often vile as Trump.
As someone who is pretty liberal, I have looked to the left for answers, only to find very reductive and vague notions of "racism" or "xenophobia," and when that wasn't enough, they would just resort to calling them stupid. Not satisfied with that, I figured that maybe Batya Ungar-Sargon could approach the topic in a more nuanced fashion, opening the door for much smarter discourse. And having finally read her book all the way through, I would say that she mostly succeeded.
Unwilling to simply accept the mainstream narrative around MAGA supporters, Ungar-Sargon spends the book journeying around the United States, interviewing working class people from all over the country. Through them, she tells the story of how how today's elites and progressives (often one in the same) have abandoned the interests of the working class.
With the Democrat and Republican embrace of free trade, the increase in immigration, and the skyrocketing of housing and healthcare prices, they have found themselves increasingly locked off from the American Dream. The division in America, and thus their gravitation toward Trump, is not an issue of race or "white backlash," but rather of real economic concerns, which are callously dismissed by the elites more often distracted by culture war talking points.
That's where one Donald Trump comes in. In spite of his many faults, of which the write doesn't deny, he speaks to these valid grievances in a way that both Democrats and Republicans alike have forgotten how to do. His promises of reducing immigration and bringing back jobs, lofty as they may be, are exactly what the working class have been waiting for. Following decades under the boot of neoliberalism, people are desperate for another realignment. Something's got to give. And that answer, for many at the bottom, is Trump.
Along with her observations, the author throws around some ideas on how to remedy the ails of the working class. Firstly, she proposes more limits on immigration, slowing the flow of illegal aliens, so as to open up opportunities for good paying jobs. Seeing just how chaotic the southern border has gotten over the past few years, I can definitely get behind that idea.
Secondly, she supports imposing heavy tariffs on foreign goods to incentivize more domestic manufacturing. If I've learned anything so far as an economics student, it's how distortionary tariffs are to the economy; I don't see how everything more expensive and displacing more jobs than saving is supposed to help the working class.
Thirdly, she suggests various reforms meant to expand access to healthcare, like doubling the Medicare threshold and going after the monopolies that constrain the market and jack up prices. Anything even potentially capable of reducing our stupidly high health costs is a given for me.
And finally, she advises that we move toward getting rid of exclusionary zoning laws which serve to artificially inflate the price of homes. Already somewhat read on this topic, I possess within me a burning hatred of zoning laws. Out of any section of the book, this was easily the part I enjoyed reading the most (saving the best for last, I suppose). She goes into the surprisingly dark history of these innocuous regulations, detailing how they were conceptualized as a way to keep black people and minorities out of white neighborhoods once explicitly racist practices like red lining were made illegal, and remaining a persistent barrier between the rich and working class.
With all that in mind, I found Second Class to be a surprisingly in depth look into the motives and origins of our current political struggle. The book, like any, is not without its issues; I found some of the interviews to get tedious and repetitive after a while, making an otherwise short book feel longer than it is. That being said, the book still accomplished what it set out to do, humanizing the people who decide to support Trump in a manner that I hope more liberals can come to understand. If more of them thought this way, we probably wouldn't be so polarized.
As someone who is pretty liberal, I have looked to the left for answers, only to find very reductive and vague notions of "racism" or "xenophobia," and when that wasn't enough, they would just resort to calling them stupid. Not satisfied with that, I figured that maybe Batya Ungar-Sargon could approach the topic in a more nuanced fashion, opening the door for much smarter discourse. And having finally read her book all the way through, I would say that she mostly succeeded.
Unwilling to simply accept the mainstream narrative around MAGA supporters, Ungar-Sargon spends the book journeying around the United States, interviewing working class people from all over the country. Through them, she tells the story of how how today's elites and progressives (often one in the same) have abandoned the interests of the working class.
With the Democrat and Republican embrace of free trade, the increase in immigration, and the skyrocketing of housing and healthcare prices, they have found themselves increasingly locked off from the American Dream. The division in America, and thus their gravitation toward Trump, is not an issue of race or "white backlash," but rather of real economic concerns, which are callously dismissed by the elites more often distracted by culture war talking points.
That's where one Donald Trump comes in. In spite of his many faults, of which the write doesn't deny, he speaks to these valid grievances in a way that both Democrats and Republicans alike have forgotten how to do. His promises of reducing immigration and bringing back jobs, lofty as they may be, are exactly what the working class have been waiting for. Following decades under the boot of neoliberalism, people are desperate for another realignment. Something's got to give. And that answer, for many at the bottom, is Trump.
Along with her observations, the author throws around some ideas on how to remedy the ails of the working class. Firstly, she proposes more limits on immigration, slowing the flow of illegal aliens, so as to open up opportunities for good paying jobs. Seeing just how chaotic the southern border has gotten over the past few years, I can definitely get behind that idea.
Secondly, she supports imposing heavy tariffs on foreign goods to incentivize more domestic manufacturing. If I've learned anything so far as an economics student, it's how distortionary tariffs are to the economy; I don't see how everything more expensive and displacing more jobs than saving is supposed to help the working class.
Thirdly, she suggests various reforms meant to expand access to healthcare, like doubling the Medicare threshold and going after the monopolies that constrain the market and jack up prices. Anything even potentially capable of reducing our stupidly high health costs is a given for me.
And finally, she advises that we move toward getting rid of exclusionary zoning laws which serve to artificially inflate the price of homes. Already somewhat read on this topic, I possess within me a burning hatred of zoning laws. Out of any section of the book, this was easily the part I enjoyed reading the most (saving the best for last, I suppose). She goes into the surprisingly dark history of these innocuous regulations, detailing how they were conceptualized as a way to keep black people and minorities out of white neighborhoods once explicitly racist practices like red lining were made illegal, and remaining a persistent barrier between the rich and working class.
With all that in mind, I found Second Class to be a surprisingly in depth look into the motives and origins of our current political struggle. The book, like any, is not without its issues; I found some of the interviews to get tedious and repetitive after a while, making an otherwise short book feel longer than it is. That being said, the book still accomplished what it set out to do, humanizing the people who decide to support Trump in a manner that I hope more liberals can come to understand. If more of them thought this way, we probably wouldn't be so polarized.
December 19, 2024
The American dream is long gone. Yes, it is gone!! The fact is that no matter what party you are neither represent the working class American to the fullest extent that they should. Each party has its ideals that they support meanwhile ignoring what is most important; the American dream or in other words the pursuit of happiness.
No to say that the government should support every person in the US cradle to grave not should every American solely depend upon themselves for everything in their life. There needs to be middle road. The fact is the most just want a job that pays them enough to live comfortably, feed themselves and/or their household, have decent and affordable healthcare, obtain affordable education for profession or trade, savings for retirement, and be able to take a vacation. This is no longer possible for a majority of Americans. And it will never be.
The rich elite that belong to whatever political party live a life that only one can dream about. They never worry about anything that defines the American dream. They have it and do care that they have it or that others do not. They live a carefree life existing off the toil and sweat of others, through trust funds, investment profits, or a wealth stream that a majority will never experience. How this was obtained is not for us to judge. That will be determined someday. The wealthy should not be a hated class because they have and others are without. But, they certainly have an advantage; money. It makes the world go round.
The author of this book has interviewed real Americans who are in trenches of fighting for existence and the ability to survive in light of low paying and a barely sustainable wage in light of skyrocketing cost of living. They answer honestly and apolitically (neither solid Democrat or Republican views) on salient issues that are seemingly bypassed by most if not all politicians.
Yes, choice plays into a big part of how people end up in life, but that situation will either change for better or not. How a person decides to either succeed or fail in life is not the government’s fault, how those that have it better than they do, or how a job that is not giving them what they thought they needed. The variables of life throw curveballs and everyone needs to adapt to make contact.
However, if the ball is aimed square at your head every pitch, then striking out is the result. This is where most people are right now. They know that they can succeed if they try to apply themselves, but when a wall is placed in front of them that is unable to be scaled, then failure may be the best and only option. The dream of the grand slam of obtaining the American Dream is never attainable. Down and out is the only option and just survival on what you can afford is the only reality to make it on base.
Sounds terrible? It is!! Reading this book opened in my eyes and made me realize the bubble that I live in and glad that my career is coming to an end, but is it? Retirement may be possible only if I think I can afford to do so. Even with that my wife and I may not be able to so because living expenses have escalated beyond what we anticipated. Inflation is sailing out of control with no end in sight that stifle any plans in the near future to consider retirement. Our American dream has been achieved, but for how much longer? Choices and circumstances in life have certainly played into where we are good or bad. We will see what the future holds.
Others are not as lucky and some were just prepared to weather a financial storm well into retirement. They secured good paying jobs over 40 years ago whether helped by education or meritocracy they succeeded financially to lock down that American dream with an impenetrable chain. This was created not only by having job security, low cost housing and living expenses, meeting annual expense with a hassle, and ultimately being able to save with retirement pensions
that secured the future. Not all were able to this, but most have. Today, this is only a fantasy.
This book is certainly a read for anyone who wants to know why they are where they are in today’s economy and why they will never see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. A good book period.
No to say that the government should support every person in the US cradle to grave not should every American solely depend upon themselves for everything in their life. There needs to be middle road. The fact is the most just want a job that pays them enough to live comfortably, feed themselves and/or their household, have decent and affordable healthcare, obtain affordable education for profession or trade, savings for retirement, and be able to take a vacation. This is no longer possible for a majority of Americans. And it will never be.
The rich elite that belong to whatever political party live a life that only one can dream about. They never worry about anything that defines the American dream. They have it and do care that they have it or that others do not. They live a carefree life existing off the toil and sweat of others, through trust funds, investment profits, or a wealth stream that a majority will never experience. How this was obtained is not for us to judge. That will be determined someday. The wealthy should not be a hated class because they have and others are without. But, they certainly have an advantage; money. It makes the world go round.
The author of this book has interviewed real Americans who are in trenches of fighting for existence and the ability to survive in light of low paying and a barely sustainable wage in light of skyrocketing cost of living. They answer honestly and apolitically (neither solid Democrat or Republican views) on salient issues that are seemingly bypassed by most if not all politicians.
Yes, choice plays into a big part of how people end up in life, but that situation will either change for better or not. How a person decides to either succeed or fail in life is not the government’s fault, how those that have it better than they do, or how a job that is not giving them what they thought they needed. The variables of life throw curveballs and everyone needs to adapt to make contact.
However, if the ball is aimed square at your head every pitch, then striking out is the result. This is where most people are right now. They know that they can succeed if they try to apply themselves, but when a wall is placed in front of them that is unable to be scaled, then failure may be the best and only option. The dream of the grand slam of obtaining the American Dream is never attainable. Down and out is the only option and just survival on what you can afford is the only reality to make it on base.
Sounds terrible? It is!! Reading this book opened in my eyes and made me realize the bubble that I live in and glad that my career is coming to an end, but is it? Retirement may be possible only if I think I can afford to do so. Even with that my wife and I may not be able to so because living expenses have escalated beyond what we anticipated. Inflation is sailing out of control with no end in sight that stifle any plans in the near future to consider retirement. Our American dream has been achieved, but for how much longer? Choices and circumstances in life have certainly played into where we are good or bad. We will see what the future holds.
Others are not as lucky and some were just prepared to weather a financial storm well into retirement. They secured good paying jobs over 40 years ago whether helped by education or meritocracy they succeeded financially to lock down that American dream with an impenetrable chain. This was created not only by having job security, low cost housing and living expenses, meeting annual expense with a hassle, and ultimately being able to save with retirement pensions
that secured the future. Not all were able to this, but most have. Today, this is only a fantasy.
This book is certainly a read for anyone who wants to know why they are where they are in today’s economy and why they will never see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel. A good book period.
August 28, 2024
I saw this on the new nonfiction shelf at the library and, since I've been reading about the dangerous partisan divide in the US, I checked it out. I figured that "elites" in the title suggested a conservative take on the issue -- fine: this liberal has always included conservative viewpoints in her reading.
Ungar-Sargon is not a "conservative." After finishing the book I googled about her -- she calls herself a "left-wing populist" and is a controversial journalist among "coastal liberal elites" (of which I'm technically a member). She has enraged many in this group, I gather, with viewpoints outside the progressive Democratic stance. But maybe we need a come-to-Jesus moment - is either side really listening?
I can assure potential readers that her book is not a polemic or rant, but a steady presentation of facts and viewpoints. It is good journalism -- a deep dive into America to interview members of the "working-class" to learn their sense of what the term means, how their lives have changed from the political-economic upheavals of the 21st century, and the solutions they offer, which unfortunately become sparring points among liberals and conservatives. What Ungar-Sargon leads us to consider is how both parties put their hands-over-ears chanting la-la-la if a suggested solution doesn't fit their orthodoxy. Both sides cling so ferociously to their increasingly polarized positions about immigration, housing and homelessness, abortion/reproductive rights, economic health and fairness, racism and teaching about racism, LGBTQ rights, etc., that reasonable problem-solving is stymied from the beginning.
We all need to hear this. As others have done, she places class at the core of the partisan divide. In an interview with Robert Bryce, she says, "at the end of the day, the real divide in America is not actually even a political divide. It’s about class, and it’s about who is benefiting from that class divide versus who is paying for it. So much comes down to that." Whether one agrees or not, it provides a different perspective for understanding what the heck has happened to our country. (Interview at https://robertbryce.com/episode/batya...)
The book is well organized to present the results of her year-long travels and interviews. Part One is "Who is the American Working Class?" and the chapters are Struggling, Floating, Rising -- a unique and helpful set of categories. Part Two is what gives this book a 4 from me, "How Can the Lives of Working Class Americans Be Improved?" The chapters are on jobs, the "benefits cliff" (a must read), and housing. The ideas are from the workers themselves and often make what this (former) midwesterner calls good ol' common sense. Ungar-Sargon backs them up with research data well illustrated with charts. Yet proposals that violate some tenet of either party's orthodoxy are maligned or ignored. Batya Ungar-Sarton argues well, through direct presentation of her interviewes' comments and no polemics of her own, that good ideas reside here.
Now, I'll read others' reviews, with great interest!
Ungar-Sargon is not a "conservative." After finishing the book I googled about her -- she calls herself a "left-wing populist" and is a controversial journalist among "coastal liberal elites" (of which I'm technically a member). She has enraged many in this group, I gather, with viewpoints outside the progressive Democratic stance. But maybe we need a come-to-Jesus moment - is either side really listening?
I can assure potential readers that her book is not a polemic or rant, but a steady presentation of facts and viewpoints. It is good journalism -- a deep dive into America to interview members of the "working-class" to learn their sense of what the term means, how their lives have changed from the political-economic upheavals of the 21st century, and the solutions they offer, which unfortunately become sparring points among liberals and conservatives. What Ungar-Sargon leads us to consider is how both parties put their hands-over-ears chanting la-la-la if a suggested solution doesn't fit their orthodoxy. Both sides cling so ferociously to their increasingly polarized positions about immigration, housing and homelessness, abortion/reproductive rights, economic health and fairness, racism and teaching about racism, LGBTQ rights, etc., that reasonable problem-solving is stymied from the beginning.
We all need to hear this. As others have done, she places class at the core of the partisan divide. In an interview with Robert Bryce, she says, "at the end of the day, the real divide in America is not actually even a political divide. It’s about class, and it’s about who is benefiting from that class divide versus who is paying for it. So much comes down to that." Whether one agrees or not, it provides a different perspective for understanding what the heck has happened to our country. (Interview at https://robertbryce.com/episode/batya...)
The book is well organized to present the results of her year-long travels and interviews. Part One is "Who is the American Working Class?" and the chapters are Struggling, Floating, Rising -- a unique and helpful set of categories. Part Two is what gives this book a 4 from me, "How Can the Lives of Working Class Americans Be Improved?" The chapters are on jobs, the "benefits cliff" (a must read), and housing. The ideas are from the workers themselves and often make what this (former) midwesterner calls good ol' common sense. Ungar-Sargon backs them up with research data well illustrated with charts. Yet proposals that violate some tenet of either party's orthodoxy are maligned or ignored. Batya Ungar-Sarton argues well, through direct presentation of her interviewes' comments and no polemics of her own, that good ideas reside here.
Now, I'll read others' reviews, with great interest!
April 5, 2024
The content in this ethnography of Mayberry is so stale, you can tell the author desperately wants it to be this election cycle's "Strangers in Their Own Land" or "Hillbilly Elegy." The book has almost nothing new or interesting to say other than that sectoral bargaining (an idea supported by some Democrats and zero Republicans) might be a neat idea.
Another thing I noticed is that the author made a point of saying at the beginning of the book that the people she talked to "supported gay marriage and were very pro-gay, but also very worried about the spread of transgender ideology, especially the spread in schools," and at the end she says "People were very pro-gay but very worried about transgender ideology." However, there is very little evidence for either of these generalizations presented in the book. As far as I can tell there are only cherry-picked anecdotes from people who are themselves gay or who have accepted a family member who has come out as gay; this isn't the same as a principled commitment to equality in general, because people can and do compartmentalize. It's actually a crucial distinction to make when the right of gay people to live as openly as straight people do is being contested.
The author had the opportunity to talk to "Amy," a nurse in Florida who has a number of terrible opinions on the most important issues in society today: drag queens, what sorts of healthcare women and trans youth should be allowed to receive, and what she believes is "the promiscuity she sees championed in some corners of the LGBT community." It would be interesting to read more of why she believed what she believed, why she felt existing obscenity laws were not sufficient to prevent whatever she thought was uniquely wrong about drag shows, how do you ban drag shows without banning cross-dressing (something commonly done in theater across cultures and throughout history), what other types of things should parents be arrested for taking kids to (e.g., perhaps R-rated films, Florida's famous clothing-optional beaches, etc.), why is this moral panic about drag happening now, why does she call drag shows "trans shows" even though drag performers are primarily cis gay men, what does it mean to "champion promiscuity," etc. If the author asked any of these questions, somehow the answers didn't make it into the book.
I think the author just really had an opinion that maybe would've been interesting and fresh if expressed in 2016, and she wasn't going to let the fact that eight years have passed stop her from turning her opinion into a book. I'd say the fact that the author barely talks about how pro-labor the Biden administration has been seems like kind of an oversight, but it's not clear because her views about unions are totally incoherent, and she contradicts herself throughout the book. For example she says the "working class" is against expanding the welfare state but the closest thing to a policy proposal that she offers for the "benefits cliff" problem is to expand eligibility—which entails an expansion of the welfare state!
Another thing I noticed is that the author made a point of saying at the beginning of the book that the people she talked to "supported gay marriage and were very pro-gay, but also very worried about the spread of transgender ideology, especially the spread in schools," and at the end she says "People were very pro-gay but very worried about transgender ideology." However, there is very little evidence for either of these generalizations presented in the book. As far as I can tell there are only cherry-picked anecdotes from people who are themselves gay or who have accepted a family member who has come out as gay; this isn't the same as a principled commitment to equality in general, because people can and do compartmentalize. It's actually a crucial distinction to make when the right of gay people to live as openly as straight people do is being contested.
The author had the opportunity to talk to "Amy," a nurse in Florida who has a number of terrible opinions on the most important issues in society today: drag queens, what sorts of healthcare women and trans youth should be allowed to receive, and what she believes is "the promiscuity she sees championed in some corners of the LGBT community." It would be interesting to read more of why she believed what she believed, why she felt existing obscenity laws were not sufficient to prevent whatever she thought was uniquely wrong about drag shows, how do you ban drag shows without banning cross-dressing (something commonly done in theater across cultures and throughout history), what other types of things should parents be arrested for taking kids to (e.g., perhaps R-rated films, Florida's famous clothing-optional beaches, etc.), why is this moral panic about drag happening now, why does she call drag shows "trans shows" even though drag performers are primarily cis gay men, what does it mean to "champion promiscuity," etc. If the author asked any of these questions, somehow the answers didn't make it into the book.
I think the author just really had an opinion that maybe would've been interesting and fresh if expressed in 2016, and she wasn't going to let the fact that eight years have passed stop her from turning her opinion into a book. I'd say the fact that the author barely talks about how pro-labor the Biden administration has been seems like kind of an oversight, but it's not clear because her views about unions are totally incoherent, and she contradicts herself throughout the book. For example she says the "working class" is against expanding the welfare state but the closest thing to a policy proposal that she offers for the "benefits cliff" problem is to expand eligibility—which entails an expansion of the welfare state!
January 20, 2025
Her message resonates. I hear it so:
First rule of squashing sour grapes on big win AND the working men & women of America!
1. KNOW overwhelming amts of dems (Latino, Muslim, Women, young male dem party deserters) flipped at the polls to drown out strained identity garble like YOURS!
Be actually HERE while doing it!!
So as to not appear bouncing from edge to edge in obsessive clickety stickety bubble and be on about the rise of a new BROligarchy you helped fester and feed while banging on daily lecturism from another country! That’s how the hypocritical sausage gets made. When you bang on but don’t call this place home. The nerve! But folks in America are aware of this. They keenly see you think it’s your first amendment right to wax on, never learn about what has really shifted in and how, the underbelly of things back home in good OL’ States of A. They watched you for years release more divisively than even the marginalized & working class folks themselves. They see strong belief that a wokist rant from privileged spaces, is supposed to somehow be a comfort to them much less help them reach out of rough financial patches of which they know you have never or will never know, so don’t exacerbate the headlines yet NEVER travel the states on any fact finding. Not even EVER vacationing here! News flash: Your saving or insightful graces will never reach them and secondly they NEVER gave you permission to advocate in their name. But I like that Batya has done this and really gathered stories. Although it feels excessive at times, her story gathering is valid and organic to her claims.
It echoes how ‘Woke rigidity lost us the last election by people that have nothing to lose unzipping their gobs and letting it rip, lost us the last election, the height of elitist insult. And the working men and women of America at high fatigue level tired of their nonsense. This much I got out of this book. The reviews resonate and the shame has crusted over to a rock strength resilience- it could elect Vance if in 4 years time, Dems don’t step down from lecturing rigid rules to American workers!
Kindly sit tf right down if you still think your American roots buy you the airspace to yak on about a millions of folks who only ever hear “I’m better than you” coming out of the sides of your lecturing bat swings! They certainly know your time is afforded to you, leisurely without working a job of any sort while we wake up everyday to do so
Read stories of ordinary Americans that are tired of the lecturing how they need to live and who they need to address as they build your homes, offices and airports.
You’re NOT adding any input by spraying elitist selective bitterness that does not impact you.
First rule of squashing sour grapes on big win AND the working men & women of America!
1. KNOW overwhelming amts of dems (Latino, Muslim, Women, young male dem party deserters) flipped at the polls to drown out strained identity garble like YOURS!
Be actually HERE while doing it!!
So as to not appear bouncing from edge to edge in obsessive clickety stickety bubble and be on about the rise of a new BROligarchy you helped fester and feed while banging on daily lecturism from another country! That’s how the hypocritical sausage gets made. When you bang on but don’t call this place home. The nerve! But folks in America are aware of this. They keenly see you think it’s your first amendment right to wax on, never learn about what has really shifted in and how, the underbelly of things back home in good OL’ States of A. They watched you for years release more divisively than even the marginalized & working class folks themselves. They see strong belief that a wokist rant from privileged spaces, is supposed to somehow be a comfort to them much less help them reach out of rough financial patches of which they know you have never or will never know, so don’t exacerbate the headlines yet NEVER travel the states on any fact finding. Not even EVER vacationing here! News flash: Your saving or insightful graces will never reach them and secondly they NEVER gave you permission to advocate in their name. But I like that Batya has done this and really gathered stories. Although it feels excessive at times, her story gathering is valid and organic to her claims.
It echoes how ‘Woke rigidity lost us the last election by people that have nothing to lose unzipping their gobs and letting it rip, lost us the last election, the height of elitist insult. And the working men and women of America at high fatigue level tired of their nonsense. This much I got out of this book. The reviews resonate and the shame has crusted over to a rock strength resilience- it could elect Vance if in 4 years time, Dems don’t step down from lecturing rigid rules to American workers!
Kindly sit tf right down if you still think your American roots buy you the airspace to yak on about a millions of folks who only ever hear “I’m better than you” coming out of the sides of your lecturing bat swings! They certainly know your time is afforded to you, leisurely without working a job of any sort while we wake up everyday to do so
Read stories of ordinary Americans that are tired of the lecturing how they need to live and who they need to address as they build your homes, offices and airports.
You’re NOT adding any input by spraying elitist selective bitterness that does not impact you.
July 4, 2024
Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women by Batya Ungar-Sargon is based on a series of interviews of working class Americans to discover their views of the likelihood of achieving the American Dream. A fairly diverse selection of workers were selected, some of whom have done relatively well in the economy, and some who are still trying to attain some sort of economic stability. Interspersed with their stories, Batya provides economic statistics to bolster her assertions related to the difficulty for working class citizens to achieve the American Dream and some of the reasons for this difficulty.
The main reason that working class people are having trouble in our economy according to Batya is that our economic system favors those who have a college degree. The elites have rigged the system in favor of college graduates, and traditional non- professional jobs are looked down on now by snobby people of influence. This was the theme running through most of the interviews presented in the book. Most of the workers still believed in the American Dream and getting it through perseverance and hard work, but they felt like the deck was stacked against them somehow in various ways.
While most of the workers felt that they could reach their goals with minimum government intervention, Batya ends up listing a collection of their ideas for helping workers including higher wages, housing, better health care, less immigration, and more protective trade policies. All of which sound suspiciously like government-driven initiatives. Plus the role of globalization is hardly mentioned, except indirectly, as are the consequences of bad personal life choices and dysfunctional families, even though the latter conditions seem to have contributed considerably to a lot of the workers' situations. Perhaps more family counseling and economic planning help should be added to the workers' wish list.
All in all, Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women is an interesting read, and it gives some snapshots of some hard working people that tend to get ignored in our high-tech society. Making sure that everyone who makes an effort can achieve the American Dream is certainly something worth promoting.
The main reason that working class people are having trouble in our economy according to Batya is that our economic system favors those who have a college degree. The elites have rigged the system in favor of college graduates, and traditional non- professional jobs are looked down on now by snobby people of influence. This was the theme running through most of the interviews presented in the book. Most of the workers still believed in the American Dream and getting it through perseverance and hard work, but they felt like the deck was stacked against them somehow in various ways.
While most of the workers felt that they could reach their goals with minimum government intervention, Batya ends up listing a collection of their ideas for helping workers including higher wages, housing, better health care, less immigration, and more protective trade policies. All of which sound suspiciously like government-driven initiatives. Plus the role of globalization is hardly mentioned, except indirectly, as are the consequences of bad personal life choices and dysfunctional families, even though the latter conditions seem to have contributed considerably to a lot of the workers' situations. Perhaps more family counseling and economic planning help should be added to the workers' wish list.
All in all, Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women is an interesting read, and it gives some snapshots of some hard working people that tend to get ignored in our high-tech society. Making sure that everyone who makes an effort can achieve the American Dream is certainly something worth promoting.
January 27, 2025
While I appreciated the perspectives of the working class individuals interviewed for Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women, I found the rest of the book largely lacking. Enough that I also question the value of the interviews as presented.
While I definitely feel there was a desire to appear unbiased in sharing individual working class views, the author's biases shine through in her interpretations of what interviewees are saying (interpretations I cannot help but think aren't needed), and in the statements she makes to bolster only specific claims.
She routinely references "policies," specifying that an interviewee can "share specific policies" that impacted them. However, she never points to any actual policies and instead relies heavily on media narratives and culture war-centered arguments.
Much of what is referenced simply isn't true. Ungar-Sargon relies completely on anecdotal data, falls prey to ill-defined terms like "woke" and "the elites," and unfortunately does not follow journalistic norms that would require some kind of fact-checking prior to promoting any "data."
I find it particularly problematic that the author makes sweeping generalizations herself, to amplify claims targeting immigrants and unions. While she tries to establish herself as a union advocate, and shares the very real benefits the union workers she speaks with have, she also cherry picks data to argue (incorrectly) that union density declines are the fault of immigration policies. Further, she shares "reasons" for lowered union density that could have come directly from a corporate-hired union buster.
Where Second Class could have been a window into the connections needed to adequately address working class issues, and correct misconceptions borne by the culture wars that led to some fearfully nebulous "elite" (that takes on a different definition depending on who one is talking with) and dangerous misconceptions about immigrants, unions, and the economy - it absolutely fails to do so.
While I definitely feel there was a desire to appear unbiased in sharing individual working class views, the author's biases shine through in her interpretations of what interviewees are saying (interpretations I cannot help but think aren't needed), and in the statements she makes to bolster only specific claims.
She routinely references "policies," specifying that an interviewee can "share specific policies" that impacted them. However, she never points to any actual policies and instead relies heavily on media narratives and culture war-centered arguments.
Much of what is referenced simply isn't true. Ungar-Sargon relies completely on anecdotal data, falls prey to ill-defined terms like "woke" and "the elites," and unfortunately does not follow journalistic norms that would require some kind of fact-checking prior to promoting any "data."
I find it particularly problematic that the author makes sweeping generalizations herself, to amplify claims targeting immigrants and unions. While she tries to establish herself as a union advocate, and shares the very real benefits the union workers she speaks with have, she also cherry picks data to argue (incorrectly) that union density declines are the fault of immigration policies. Further, she shares "reasons" for lowered union density that could have come directly from a corporate-hired union buster.
Where Second Class could have been a window into the connections needed to adequately address working class issues, and correct misconceptions borne by the culture wars that led to some fearfully nebulous "elite" (that takes on a different definition depending on who one is talking with) and dangerous misconceptions about immigrants, unions, and the economy - it absolutely fails to do so.
November 22, 2024
Second Class is a wake up call for anyone who wants to understand America's working class, and what they want out of life. Simply put, they believe in (mostly) and want the American Dream, which includes opportunity for any job they qualify for and home ownership.
Batya Ungar-Sargon does a masterful job of introducing them to the "reading class" who thinks they know the working class, but really cling to stereotypes pushed on us by politicians. These are honest and hard-working people who do not want a handout but if they see any role for government it is to protect them from economic predation and from forces out of their control. The author sees three main obstacles to their success:
- The high prices and shortage of housing, which combined with high interest rates is shutting them out of the home buying market. I somewhat argue with her recommendation to eliminate zoning for single family housing, but she is correct that this limits affordable housing for the Working Class.
- Jobs with descriptions requiring a college degree where in most cases this makes no sense. She provides case after case of good people without degrees who could not get promoted. To some extent she implicates the educational establishment in this arrangement.
- Unrestricted immigration. this will upset lots of Democrats but the truth hurts. Illegals are driving down wages across the country AND taking free government benefits. The working class is not stupid and they see it happening.
So much more could be said and has been said by other reviewers. If you truly care about ordinary people or if you can identify with their trouble, as I can, you must read this book.
Batya Ungar-Sargon does a masterful job of introducing them to the "reading class" who thinks they know the working class, but really cling to stereotypes pushed on us by politicians. These are honest and hard-working people who do not want a handout but if they see any role for government it is to protect them from economic predation and from forces out of their control. The author sees three main obstacles to their success:
- The high prices and shortage of housing, which combined with high interest rates is shutting them out of the home buying market. I somewhat argue with her recommendation to eliminate zoning for single family housing, but she is correct that this limits affordable housing for the Working Class.
- Jobs with descriptions requiring a college degree where in most cases this makes no sense. She provides case after case of good people without degrees who could not get promoted. To some extent she implicates the educational establishment in this arrangement.
- Unrestricted immigration. this will upset lots of Democrats but the truth hurts. Illegals are driving down wages across the country AND taking free government benefits. The working class is not stupid and they see it happening.
So much more could be said and has been said by other reviewers. If you truly care about ordinary people or if you can identify with their trouble, as I can, you must read this book.
March 16, 2025
[3.25] Given the amazing potential this book possessed with its riveting and timely topic, the end product was a tad disappointing.
The author deserves credit for spending a year traveling the country and interviewing a large and diverse group of people who share some truly compelling stories. The book touches on important issues that include our “diploma divide,” the impacts of mass migration, our astonishing housing crisis and the “benefits cliff.”
However, “Second Class” soon began to feel more like a disjointed array of anecdotes than what Ungar-Sargon described in a broadcast interview as a deep-dive into the notion of whether working class individuals “still have a fair shot at the American Dream.”
What’s more, the writing in some sections is downright sloppy and maddeningly repetitive. “Second Class” would have definitely benefitted from a more diligent editor.
Having said all of this, “Second Class” provides some insights. Ungar-Sargon, who occasionally appears as a commentator/analyst on TV, shared one insight in a recent appearance on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal.” She said she was surprised to discover how many working class individuals were outraged over government “waste, fraud and abuse.” Some complained that “the people who deserve help don’t get it, and the people choosing not to work are able to scam the system.”
The author deserves credit for spending a year traveling the country and interviewing a large and diverse group of people who share some truly compelling stories. The book touches on important issues that include our “diploma divide,” the impacts of mass migration, our astonishing housing crisis and the “benefits cliff.”
However, “Second Class” soon began to feel more like a disjointed array of anecdotes than what Ungar-Sargon described in a broadcast interview as a deep-dive into the notion of whether working class individuals “still have a fair shot at the American Dream.”
What’s more, the writing in some sections is downright sloppy and maddeningly repetitive. “Second Class” would have definitely benefitted from a more diligent editor.
Having said all of this, “Second Class” provides some insights. Ungar-Sargon, who occasionally appears as a commentator/analyst on TV, shared one insight in a recent appearance on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal.” She said she was surprised to discover how many working class individuals were outraged over government “waste, fraud and abuse.” Some complained that “the people who deserve help don’t get it, and the people choosing not to work are able to scam the system.”
April 14, 2025
This was a thought-provoking book. I really liked hearing about the experiences of the working American middle class and their thoughts on the elements that are part of the "American Dream". It delves into topics such as livable wages, home ownership, retirement, healthcare, education, immigration, unions, poverty, and welfare benefits.
While it isn't really a "here are the solutions to all our woes" book, one could definitely draw some ideas from what is presented. I'm glad the author brought up the success order as a way to help reduce poverty - high school graduation, gainful employment (education/trade/apprenticeship), marriage, kids - as well as the common sense approach of opportunity creation rather than throwing more money at systems that aren't working. She skillfully touches upon politically-charged topics and presents information in an unbiased way while paying respect and dignity to the people she talked with. It's a book that provides its readers with understanding and gives voice to those who feel they've lost theirs when it comes to the slow-to-listen political elites running our country.
While it isn't really a "here are the solutions to all our woes" book, one could definitely draw some ideas from what is presented. I'm glad the author brought up the success order as a way to help reduce poverty - high school graduation, gainful employment (education/trade/apprenticeship), marriage, kids - as well as the common sense approach of opportunity creation rather than throwing more money at systems that aren't working. She skillfully touches upon politically-charged topics and presents information in an unbiased way while paying respect and dignity to the people she talked with. It's a book that provides its readers with understanding and gives voice to those who feel they've lost theirs when it comes to the slow-to-listen political elites running our country.
August 23, 2025
The book is informative of America's working class, and distinction between the working vs. middle class. Batya Ungar-Sargon interviewed several workers over a year and concluded the following
- the working class is hard working. Very hard working. They want to work.
- they want to have a salary that's fair...that's a living wage
- they want to have enough also to save a little, to buy a home, to pay for their kids' college, to save for retirement - the American Dream
- they don't want illegal immigrants competing for the working class jobs and thus also declining their already low salaries
It appears that unions can effectively help the working class move up, by securing their jobs and benefits, such as healthcare, retirement, decent salary, job training, and sometimes even down payments on a home.
I believe that for America to help the working class, we need to understand what they are facing. In order for America to be a successful nation, all need to succeed towards achieving the American Dream.
- the working class is hard working. Very hard working. They want to work.
- they want to have a salary that's fair...that's a living wage
- they want to have enough also to save a little, to buy a home, to pay for their kids' college, to save for retirement - the American Dream
- they don't want illegal immigrants competing for the working class jobs and thus also declining their already low salaries
It appears that unions can effectively help the working class move up, by securing their jobs and benefits, such as healthcare, retirement, decent salary, job training, and sometimes even down payments on a home.
I believe that for America to help the working class, we need to understand what they are facing. In order for America to be a successful nation, all need to succeed towards achieving the American Dream.
April 18, 2025
I appreciated the format this book utilized - interviewing working men and women from across the country. If you don't have time to read the book, at least read the 4-page conclusion beginning on page 207.
"The truth is that we have one party in this country that represents corporations and the Chamber of Commerce and another that represents the educated, credentialed elite and the dependent poor, and no party willing to assume a working-class agenda, which is why the American Dream is out of reach for so many. Republicans rail against wokeness while protecting corporate greed, while Democrats push for more welfare while welcoming millions of migrant workers. Both have abandoned the working class whose labor we all rely on to survive.
This situation is untenable - morally, spiritually, and economically. No society can survive that's built on the labor of those with no voice.
Yet a surprising amount of energy is expended keeping the working class silent."
-Pages 209-210
"The truth is that we have one party in this country that represents corporations and the Chamber of Commerce and another that represents the educated, credentialed elite and the dependent poor, and no party willing to assume a working-class agenda, which is why the American Dream is out of reach for so many. Republicans rail against wokeness while protecting corporate greed, while Democrats push for more welfare while welcoming millions of migrant workers. Both have abandoned the working class whose labor we all rely on to survive.
This situation is untenable - morally, spiritually, and economically. No society can survive that's built on the labor of those with no voice.
Yet a surprising amount of energy is expended keeping the working class silent."
-Pages 209-210
July 17, 2025
Has a lot of interesting vignettes of how things aren’t very good for the working class who we depend on to run our country. The author makes some recommendations about how to fix the housing shortage by loosening zoning laws to allow for the construction of duplex home and three-story family dwellings. I couldn’t tell if she was recommending universal health care because she believed it would cost too much. She also recommended that government benefits be not so strictly laddered so that just because a beneficiary made a few dollars more per month, it shouldn’t mean losing a disproportional amount of monetary assistance. The author felt that housing vouchers were no help because it creates greater demand without an increase in supply. She felt that private industry should pay their workers enough to afford housing where they live. She marvels that right now, there is no national party that looks out for working people.
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