I started thinking about this after listening to this interview by Michael Lind, author of How The Professional Managerial Class Ruined Everything. In the interview he essentially argues that what he calls the Professional Managerial Class is partly responsible for the economic stagnation of the working class. I think he is on to something here, particularly with educational level. Read any MSM news story about the minimum wage, and you will see comments that people on minimum wage should just get an education so they can better themselves. He also mentions that communities in the US and Eurpoe who are embracing right-wing populism once voted for social democrats. Of course, the more educated among us will say that these people are voting against their class interests. Are they really? Has anyone meaningfully attempted to cater to their class interests in the last few decades? This is where the issue of lower cost education comes in, which is one of the only things the left is offering this group. Take someone working in a low-wage job. Lower-cost education might help this person in a few years get a better job, but how does it help this person right now?
I agree with most of what was said in this e-mail. We need to stop this useless focus on trying to "educate" everyone, and instead advocate for meeting the needs of the working and lower classes as a whole, in the economic situation they are in.