Social Standing gone wrong. Both political parties are excluding you. We have arrived at the politics of five year olds in the US. I swear sometimes I can hear pundits (both sides) humming nah-nah nah-nah-nah under their breath. Social Standing has become every man for himself. I've heard far too many ignorant people (rich and poor) say that increasing wages at the bottom will cost them money. Meanwhile, the percentage of what you spend that is actually wages is a very low 5%. If everything that you purchased cost 5% more... would you even notice? That's all it would take to double wages at the bottom.
Reich mentions the 1930s Depression and the resulting social cohesion frequently. He is not wrong to focus on wages, but I think he has the scale of change wrong. Some of the fundamentals of the economy are badly eroded but Wall Street is deferring the bad news by using cash to buy their own stock to prop up the prices. When they run out of money for that little accounting trick... the economic house will officially be on fire. Why do we keep doing it this way? Social Standing.
Social Standing is almost always exclusion. A person that is IN decides to close to the door behind themselves. Both political parties in the US have decided that it is perfectly acceptable to have extreme losers in the US. The really big choice (made in 1981) was choosing to exclude millions of people from the economy.
Conservatives exclude because they are certain that you need to be like them. If you are not like them you must 'deserve' to suffer. They sortof want to own you--as an employee. They get what they want when the economy becomes punishing enough to drive people to low wage jobs. They can't imagine how you can be so stupid as to not be an owner like they are.
Liberals exclude because they are certain that you need to be like them. If you are not like them you must 'deserve' to suffer. They need to be heard and feel important and they want to tell you who and what to be. (guess who's mostly liberal? ME! too many words.) They get what they want when the economy becomes punishing enough to demand degrees for simple jobs like truck driving. They require you to be educated enough to understand their subtle superiority to you. They can't imagine how you can be so stupid as to not be an influential writer of important opinion that will certainly change everything.
Social Standing. Ask literally anyone and they will tell you that their choices are the best. Meanwhile, every single time 'the economy' hiccups just a little bit... more people slide closer to the minimum wage. The Depression convinced everyone simultaneously that even stupid boneheads and greaseballs should probably earn enough money to participate in the economy. Lesson lost because... social standing. I don't have your problem so I must be better than you: "Nah-Nah Nah-Nah-Nah."
tl;dr Politics is money. Always vote for your own wage, but particularly vote for increasing wages at the bottom. You should never vote against someone else's wage because you need customers and fellow taxpayers. No one can ne there with you without wages. Ask your older relatives to vote with you for your future. Wages equals economy.
tl;dr II ... Draft Warren.