Tracking the fortunes of the white working-class

IN 1922 Donald Trump's father, Fred, left high school at 16 to work for a carpenter. He was a 'very smart guy' who could 'add five columns of numbers in his head'. Construction came naturally to him, too. By 1971 he had amassed a multi-million-dollar fortune. Working-class success stories like Fred's are rare in America, and becoming rarer. The president wants to see more of them.At his inauguration he declared that America's 'forgotten men and women' will 'be forgotten no longer'. And he has vowed to bring back jobs to states that have been 'hurt so badly' by globalisation. By America's forgotten people, he means above all white working-class men: three-quarters of white men who left school at 18 and voted in November did so for Mr Trump, the highest share of any demographic group.White men are also Mr Trump's most loyal supporters. While his approval ratings languish at 49% nationwide, among working-class white men they are at 69%, according to YouGov, a pollster. This group also forms a big chunk of the labour force: non-Hispanic white men aged 25 to 65 with a high-school diploma or less make up 23% of male workers.Mr Trump has little of his father's precision with figures. A year ago he reckoned that the unemployment rate'rather than hovering around 5% as the official statistics showed'was 'probably 28,...Continue reading
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