Foreword
Too many Americans feel that Washington has turned its back on them. They know they
work hard, and they believe that anyone who works hard in America deserves to earn a
stable middle-class life—at least. Whether you’re a Democrat, independent, or
Republican, you need to understand the depth of the anger that is driving American
politics today. And you need to understand the reason for that anger.
I grew up in Pittsburgh, in a traditional blue-collar family. My dad did car upholstery—he
didn’t love it, but it supported the family. My parents scrimped to save money, but we
always had the basics: a house, a car that worked. My parents worked hard, and their
hard work paid off. They took pride in their work ethic and their ability to persevere.
Joan Williams’s book is truly enlightening. It describes the values I was raised with: self-
reliance, hard work, stability, and straight talk. It also answers the questions many people
have been asking about the so-called white working class since Trump was elected in
- (They’re the middle class, by the way.) Why are they so angry? Why is so much of
their anger focused on government? Why don’t they just move to where the jobs are?
Why don’t they get their act together and go to college? Joan Williams answers these
questions and more.
Most important, she shows that Americans want a country where hard work pays off.
They will collect government benefits or go on disability—if that’s what they need to do
to support their families. But that’s not what they want. They want what my parents had:
the ability to work hard and create a stable family life.
When I was in high school and still trying to figure out if and how I could afford to go to
college, my mom recommended that I learn how to lay carpet, because she was
concerned about my future. Her goal was not that I find fulfillment but that I find stability
—the kind of stability that has become so elusive in the era of closed-down factories,
abandoned Main Streets, and the opioid epidemic. It turned out I wasn’t very good with
carpet but did have a knack for starting technology businesses. But here’s the fact: not
everyone is an entrepreneur, and not everyone has a direct path to a job that can pay
their bills.
As much as I believe that the American dream is alive and well, my experience in
business has taught me that not everyone lives in a situation conducive to chasing that
dream that so many of us have taken for granted.
Foreword