A little bit of a rant but I think I can provide a perspective that is sorely lacking here:
I don’t know if you would categorize how I was raised as lower or middle class- my parents own a small house (paid off their 30 year mortgage in the early 2000’s) and we were 5 people living in a 3br/1.5 bath. No cars, only public transit. Both parents working once the youngest was in elementary school, and even then I qualified for the free lunch program. I don’t think we ever worried about paying utilities but I know I was pressured to not take long showers and we kept our AC pretty high, always over 73. I was very much aware that my friends’ parents shopped at the Gap for them and for me that did occasionally happen, but it was not my norm. Weird thing to remember, but it sticks.
College was not a given for me (father is college educated, mother is not) so when I chose to go, it was a question of how I would pay for it. I had a part-time job in high school but that was really to cover my expenses like going to the movies. Moving out at 18 with anything less than a full-time job was out of the question because I couldn’t cover rent and school. So, when I applied to a city college that was ~$4K a semester and also received an honor’s scholarship that covered some of it, my choice was made. I was eligible for Pell grants and when I asked my parents to pay for my college tuition, which typically ran $1-2K a semester (I don’t remember exactly but I think my financial aid package varied a bit each year) I was very pleasantly surprised when they agreed.
I got my first part-time office job at 18 as a secretary in a small office, paid off the books at a very decent $12/hour. I thought it was amazing but in hindsight, it was probably standard off the books pay for the work I was doing by NYC standards. I found the job in Craigslist. It was probably the fact that I was female and a college student that made me a good candidate and I will take responsibility that it was a privilege that I don’t think I should have been given over other candidates.
Fast forward 10+ years and I am doing pretty well. I’m hardly rich by anyone’s standards but the fact that I can afford to live comfortably given inflation is a sign that I have really made it.
Now for my rant: doing well/living comfortably/even being on the lower wrung of rich is all relative. I’m sure I would be wealthy if I lived in a lot of places in America but I live in NY metro. I am also a pawn at work. I’m personally fine not being the target demographic on r/antiwork but the reason I’m here is because I stand with you.
I feel guilty scrolling and scared to comment here because of my privileged status but the truth is that’s something I need to get over because I know I need to be a part of this, too. And I’m sure all of the upvoted comments about people who swap jobs a lot for higher pay are also people who don’t have any student loan debt either, since they’re doing better financially than me it seems based on salaries.
If you want a revolution, you need to include the ENTIRE working class. There are too many college educated people in America that are abused in white collar work for us to feel unwelcome here. We’ve had bad bosses, too, even if we may never have been abused by customers.
TLDR: Stop with the asinine “you’ve never worked retail/hospitality” shit if you want to include all workers in the revolution.