While we talk about all this through the lens of 'late-stage' capitalism - the condition that allows billionaires to siphon off the country's wealth - we should also talk about 'late-stage Protestant Victorianism'. The old American notion that the man goes out to work and conquer the world while the woman stays home to raise both the kids and the family's morals is gasping its last breath as women claim a bigger place in the public realm - university education, business formation, etc. Meanwhile, the lower-income male population still believes that it is the focus of everyone's envy and attention, and will never be abandoned. These guys will have to hit rock bottom, with all the attendant social upheaval that will result, before they realize they have to join with their poor counterparts among women and people of color to wrest the nation's wealth and power out of the clinging, greedy hands of the billionaires. It will likely be very ugly when it happens although the unions may provide a less upsetting outlet for change through strikes and new contracts.
While we talk about all this through the lens of 'late-stage' capitalism - the condition that allows billionaires to siphon off the country's wealth - we should also talk about 'late-stage Protestant Victorianism'. The old American notion that the man goes out to work and conquer the world while the woman stays home to raise both the kids and the family's morals is gasping its last breath as women claim a bigger place in the public realm - university education, business formation, etc. Meanwhile, the lower-income male population still believes that it is the focus of everyone's envy and attention, and will never be abandoned. These guys will have to hit rock bottom, with all the attendant social upheaval that will result, before they realize they have to join with their poor counterparts among women and people of color to wrest the nation's wealth and power out of the clinging, greedy hands of the billionaires. It will likely be very ugly when it happens although the unions may provide a less upsetting outlet for change through strikes and new contracts.
Absolutely true.