A Knock on Wood

“The siding plant’s closure was unfortunate, but the workers will be fine, they say. The workers aren’t so sure. They say that many available jobs pay less, as their cost of living — especially their housing — soars. Several Bonner workers said they had applied for jobs that pay $5 an hour less than the $20 to $25 they earned at the siding plant, without similar benefits. The elites are doing great in a Montana buoyed by technology and tourism, they say, but blue collar workers are slipping farther behind.” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Promised a Golden Age. Then a Montana Lumber Plant Closed Down. And because this is 2025, the closing of the plant has led to wildly different political explanations. Here’s mine: The economic divide is the everything story. The economic divide led to Trump and Trumpism will increase the economic divide.

+ WSJ (Gift Article): The Era of Big Raises for Low-Paid Workers Is Over. “Something remarkable happened in the years immediately preceding and, especially, following the pandemic: Wages for poor workers began rising much faster than they did for the rich.” That trend has now reverted to the modern norm.