It’s interesting - the psychology of that. Recently I was answering someone who asked why the US doesn’t have more of a working class movement, and a big part of my answer was that no one in the US thinks of themselves as part of the working class. Even if they are unarguably at the base of the economy, their plan is to get out of the working class, not make it better. Similarly, I can see Americans having a problem accepting themselves as a permanent minority. In other parts of the world this is just a fact of life. Christians in Syria know they will never be a majority. When rebels ousted Assad, one of the first things they said was that they will treat minorities well. Those minorities know who they are. Similarly, Kurds are 15% of Iraq and that is just a fact based on hundreds of years of ethnic history in the region. But in the US, everyone is on their way to something better (at least so we think). Parts of Europe had very formal class systems for long periods of history so there are people who just think of themselves as working class and they stand for workers’ rights. Not so in the US. No one here is working class or a monitory. We’re too full of all the rhetoric about being created equal.

You never know - sometimes people go against the grain. For example some of the best parents I know had shitty parents growing up.

I think what the US gets in return is on the ground intelligence about the region plus a general purpose moral excuse to go to war: “They were going to destroy our ally Israel.”

But these are only valuable if you have a forever-war mentality and a tremendous need for Middle East oil. The US is way past the point where it can and should shed both.

I’m just hearing it for the first time in this thread but my first impression isn’t great. Do you really want a label that brands you as a “minority?” That doesn’t seem like a great first step toward equality.

You could begin with “summary:”

Your comment reads more like a rebuttal than a summary. If you intend to summarize the article for lazy lemmings, that’s cool, but present it as such.

The article already says everything you said. It’s not a “solution” to anything. It’s a small step to show that this is even possible. Perhaps it will help some people whose condition makes them extraordinarily sensitive.

I swear people will find a way to shit on virtually anything and turn absolutely everything into class war.

It’s the same phenomenon as “LGBTQI+”

It was literally LGB at one point. I understand the concept of inclusion but I think pursuing it by appending and appending and appending is a lousy way to go. I believe the “Q” was finally added in part because it was hoped to be some kind of catch-all, but that didn’t work.

I know there are more important things to say about this receipt, but since everyone has already said them:

Wow, look at that receipt. So simple. Actual ink on actual paper. No coupons on the back. And one line per item. No “price - savings = real price!” bullshit or anything else. I long for that kind of simplicity in even the little things in life.

If it stars out enshittified then you never had anything to enshittify, just plain shit.

Yes I think “having to work” is definitely the boundary of upper class. We’re talking inheritances, investments, landlording, whatever.

I earn a great deal of money at my job - top 1%. But I live in a HCOL area and am raising two kids. We have no aspirations but to own our house someday and send our kids to college. If we go on a vacation once a year we are happy. I would lose absolutely everything were I to get laid off from my job. We still look for sales at Costco and cook at home instead of eating out, like everyone else. This still feels like “middle class” to me, whatever my wage is.

However I am seeing that even the basic components of the American Dream, a house and a family, are more than most can attain. I think that says that our working class is growing and perhaps getting pretty large. Certainly if you are living hand to mouth that’s working class. If you have no prospect of owning your home or sending your kids to college, that’s working class.

“Working class” has associations from when we were an industrial and manufacturing economy. People who work in an office don’t think “I’m working class” because they don’t wear coveralls and operate power tools. But we’ve transitioned to a services-based economy now for many years, so I think a LOT of people are working class without even realizing it.

And if you don’t even know you’re working class, how are you going to get fired up about a workers rights rally?

I’ll add one extra thing here: that no one in America identifies themselves as “a worker” or “working class.”

Perhaps Europe, with its historic class strata, is better prepared for this. Maybe people there know that they are working class and always will be. With that identity firmly held, they can find each other and agitate for their rights.

In America, if you are working class, first of all you’d never admit it. Everyone is “middle class” here, don’t you know. And even if in your heart you know you are working class, your aim is to get out of the working class, not make its life better.

No justifications here, just a description of American psychology on this topic.

“Why isn’t someone doing it for me already? You all suck.”

—OP