Heart wrenching read about downward mobility of a family in Michigan. The grandfather was a carpenter that retired at 60. The daughter works doubles at a grocery store and A&W for literally no money, as whatever she earns immediately gets burned by transportation costs to and from her job.
There’s so much fucked up shit in this story and it doesn’t even touch on systemic racism.
Article is from March of 2022. I didn’t realize 44% of Americans work low wage jobs. Staggering. I’m sure that number has only gotten bigger.
something like 70% of Americans have less than $1000 in emergency savings - this is the precarity at which most Americans live. One bad roll away from homelessness.
And to touch on the systemic racism, the median white American has 8x the wealth of the median black American, 6x the wealth of the median hispanic American, and 2.5x other minority groups combined.
i remember reading this when it came out. the common tragedy of the american proletariat is ever present.
