The American Dream has become increasingly elusive for millions of people as the wealth gap in the country has grown. How can working-class Americans support their families and achieve goals like home ownership, good health care and some savings in a society that is more reliant on college degrees—out of reach for many—as a measure of success? These questions are central to Newsweek Opinion Editor Batya Ungar-Sargon’s book, second class: how the elites betrayed america’s working men and women. In this excerpt from her book, she discusses the uphill climb workers without a college degree face in trying to reach middle-class milestones, and some solutions to the problem.
NICOLE DAY HAS NEVER FOUND IT HARD TO find a job-maybe because it was never an option not to. She has always worked hard to support herself and her son. She's been a bartender, an office manager, a babysitter and a coordinator at a halfway house. But recently, she's found it impossible to find a good job. The good jobs demand a college degree, even for work that doesn't use any skills you'd pick up in college. It's happened more than once that she's been forced to train her replacement because he had a college degree.
"If you don't have a college degree, you don't get as many opportunities," Nicole told me. "You know, I understand that, but at the same time, it's hard for people who are intelligent, who can bring something to the table."
Denne historien er fra April 12, 2024-utgaven av Newsweek Europe.
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Denne historien er fra April 12, 2024-utgaven av Newsweek Europe.
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Falling for Romance
A new book, Nora Ephron at the Movies, celebrates the writer/director best known for her iconic rom-coms and strong female characters
Cracking the Norse Code
Walrus DNA has shown that Vikings were likely the first to have encountered Indigenous North Americans
Monumental Shift
The discovery of 165-million-year-old crystals Easter Island has upended the longheld notion of how the Earth's \"conveyor belt\" moves
'OUR FOREIGN POLICY AND DOMESTIC REFORMS ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN'
It is a well-known fact across the globe that the North Korean regime is irrational and unpredictable, but we have been consistent in strengthening our defense posture against the threat from North Korea since the Korean War, and I believe that their conventional capability is much inferior to that of the Korean military.
'They Read My Eulogy As I Lay in an Open Grave'
Like Paris Hilton, Natasia Pelowski claims she was subjected to abuse at a teenage therapy program
Russian Economy Faces 'Burnout'
Vladimir Putin admits difficulties” as the country’s key interest rate reaches a historic high
China's 'Silent Chemical War'
The U.S. must investigate Beijing's role in the manufacturing of fentanyl that is killing Americans, says one mom whose daughter died after accidentally taking the illicit substance
HARSH HEADWINDS
President Yoon Suk Yeol's BATTLE to reform a South Korea beset with structural problems under the specter of an increasingly aggressive neighbor to THE NORTH
Bridget Everett
BRIDGET EVERETT NEVER THOUGHT SHE'D BE THE LEAD OF A TV SHOW. \"I come from the downtown world in New York, a cabaret singer, and these things just don't happen, you don't find yourself with three seasons of HBO.
Amber Ruffin
A LATE-NIGHT COMEDY SHOW ON CNN? YES, and it's a game show, too.
