What Ails the Working Class in America?

America has been a notably hard-working society for most of its history—but has become much less so in recent decades. Labor-force participation, especially among men of prime working age, has fallen to levels not seen since the Great Depression and is particularly low in certain regions of the Middle West and South. The decline of work has coincided with declining health status and longevity and high levels of drug addiction.

Policy analysts and political leaders have offered widely differing explanations for these discouraging trends, from trade policies and globalization to welfare policies, cultural upheavals, and regulatory suppression of economic opportunities. Their ideas for reversing course have important implications not only for national social and economic welfare, but also for partisan politics, as working-class Americans have been shifting significantly from their traditional home in the Democratic Party to the Republican Party.

Join us to learn more about this critical topic as Heritage’s Christopher DeMuth moderates a conversation with Oren Cass (author of The Once and Future Worker: A Vision for the Renewal of Work in America), Nicholas Eberstadt (author of Men Without Work), Iain Murray (author of The Socialist Temptation), and former U.S. Senator Rick Santorum (author of Blue Collar Conservatives: Recommitting to an America That Works).

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