Imagine two workers, Bob and Inez

[Recursion]

What "work" is, and who "workers" are, is a fraught bit of language.

(This was originally a comment in response to Sherrod Brown, but I think it has broader use.)

Imagine two people, Bob and Inez. Bob is a white high school graduate making $50K as a roofing contractor; his wife (also a white high school graduate) works part time at a retail store for $20K. Inez is a second-generation Latina immigrant single mother with an associate's degree working as a home occupational therapy assistant for $19K. We call Bob part of "the working class" but not Inez.

Bob's household makes $70K which is, not coincidentally, Trump's strongest economic group. Poorer than that, or richer than that, and his support falls off. It is also the median income of a white household with two high school graduates. This is not a coincidence. It's the median income in Staten Island, or Denton, TX.

Bob wants cheaper health insurance and free college tuition for his kids. Inez is on Medicaid and likes it, and her worry about her kids (or herself) going to college is less about tuition and more about losing 4 years of income. She wants a $15 minimum wage, paid sick leave, and higher SNAP benefits. Bob resents that Inez gets SNAP and Medicaid, and doesn't want any more money that could be going to him going to her. Bob also doesn't think a home occupational therapy assistant should start to make nearly as much as he does, and he *definitely* doesn't want to pay his aging mother's home occupational therapy assistant $15/hour.

There's an asymmetry here: Inez doesn't particularly care if Bob gets what he wants, but Bob gets angry if Inez gets what she wants. So a candidate has to convince both workers she cares about them, while hiding the fact that she cares about Inez from Bob. It's a balancing act, but successful Democratic candidates have been doing it for years. (Often by being deliberately ambiguous with the term "worker".)

There may be a campaign that can make both Bob and Inez feel like the candidate cares about them, but for the most part the two voters want very different things.

[spicysista]

1. This is a great topic, Recursion.

This is a conversation that needs to happen. I hope that it is addressed by the candidates with the nuance that you've shown. The language of " work" has quite a history.
There's much more to be discussed about the "asymmetry" you've raised. The phrase "dignity of work" seems to be a key talking point for Sen. Brown. I am curious to hear him discuss/debate the topic with other candidates. (If he declares, of course.)

[Recursion]

2. I also would look forward to that discussion

Here's hoping.

[brooklynite]

3. Why does the candidate have to care about both of them?

The Republican model has been to focus on the White working class older voters, and draw in a few votes from other groups based on "dealbreaker" issues like guns and abortion.

[Recursion]

4. Because there's (at least for another decade) more Bob's than Inez's

So Democrats need to pull every Inez and at least a few Bob's.