At the Times, Charlie’s beat had been covering what he called “the Hole,” overlooked people in forgotten places. He’d manned the lobster shift at a Burger King and got himself smuggled over the border with Mexican migrants. While readers scarfed down his copy, editors blanched. One told him it was problematic that all he seemed to cover were “losers.” Charlie figured he was in good company. Having long ago anticipated the problems that the 2008 crash, the dissipating middle class, and the Trumpian middle-finger-to-the-establishment would eventually make clear to the rest of us, Charlie knew he wasn’t some deranged Cassandra, but more attuned to the news than his editors. He told his boss: “The country’s 80 percent losers, and growing every day.” With that, he turned in his walking papers and went home.
Just a good read.
I remember Charlie well from his time on the Detroit Fox affiliate. He was always interesting …. but just a tad cynical for my taste. I did wonder what happened to him and now I know.
Oh, and about Detroit, it is 100 times better now than in 2008. If that is still not good, at least it’s measurable progress.
Wow…“An American Autopsy” is one of the best books I have read and the author is working at a hot dog place but lots of crap journalists have jobs in the “profession”. I am definitely buying his new book.
The Powerful American UNIONS took down Detroit. Drove the quality jobs south of the border … to the Far East … and to the Deep South. Obama spent $1.7Trillion U.S. dollars propping up Government Motors pensions. Who killed the American Middle class? The UNIONS killed it. Killed it dead. And now American corporations gorge themselves on ILLEGAL workers, who will work harder than the former UNIONistas … for FAR LESS $$$. And then blame YOU for wanting cheap Wal Mart shit … while pocketing ever increasing PROFITS … $$$obscene$$$ PROFITS. Profits earned from the DEATH of the American middle class. Am I anti-profit? Hardly. But when those $$$Profits come from gaming the system by screwing your fellow countrymen … then they’re “dirty” profits. Shameful.
It used to be that Henry Ford’s assembly lines made his automobiles affordable for his workers … the American middle class. Now, American corporations don’t care if Americans cannot afford their products (see: $1.5 Trillion auto loan default bubble) … because markets are … “worldwide”. They no longer “need” the American consumer … or so they hope.
The article was a good read. In fact while reading the last paragraph I got tears in my eyes. I read the article to my wife during our supper.
David, Charlie may have been a bit too cynical, but I guess finally the filth of the system got to him. It was surprising that he seemed to be anti Trump and not realizing that leftist ideology, Democrat and Republican, led to the corruption and filth that got to him.
In a way, I sometimes feel like him, and it shows when I lament in some of my comments. I am old, 76 in July, and see a dismal future for my children, who are in their prime, and for my twelve grandchildren, the first of which has just finished the first year towards being a teacher. The economic base of Canada is being destroyed by ideology before our eyes in a few short years, and the people are sleeping through it, or even applauding the destruction. Freedom of the person and of speech is also being destroyed at a rapid rate.
David, the war between freedom and socialist slavery is still going on in the US and can be won, but in Canada it was lost when the Laurentian Elite took over the country in 2015 through a George Soros puppet. The war in all disciplines in our universities was lost to the SocProgs a decade ago and barely ever achieved the status of a war. It was more like a peaceful takeover. Oh to be sure, there are still a few such as Dr. Jordan Peterson and Lindsey Sheppard fighting to preserve a modicum of freedom, but it is over and they will soon be put in their proper place. Kind of like the White Army under General Wrangel bursting out of the Crimea in October 1920.
Ken, I cannot improve on what you have written. How very true. Thanks for your thoughts.
Beautifully … if not tragically truthfully … expressed.
“The economic base of Canada is being destroyed by ideology before our eyes in a few short years, and the people are sleeping through it, or even applauding the destruction. Freedom of the person and of speech is also being destroyed at a rapid rate”
A hundred percent agreement, Ken. The societal rot is particularly depressing to those whom, to coin Charlie, have been on their knees and scraped dirt.
it is a sad irony that capitalism is its own worst enemy, in that the really successful firms will squeeze out the competition visa vie walmart.
what’s left is an oligarchy; if THAT is the best capitalism can come up with we need to keep looking.
regulating capitalism to create a fair playing field is the boogeyman of the right, aka ronald reagan syndrome ‘deregulate deregulate NO gubbamint interference with the god of free enterprise!!! (which is far different from capitalism)’ remember that campaign slogan?
Oligarchies happen because regulation stifles competition. Free markets are dynamic.
capitalism is not an ism as you think it is. capitalism is some thing you do. now think about that.
The middle class is shrinking mostly because its members are entering the upper class. Some losers stick around hovels like Flint and the like and all they need is an attitude adjustment and a U-Haul.