How the recycling of the working class led to poverty

The economic strain experienced by Americans as a result of the collapsing steel industry, created the situation needed for the recycling of the American working class. Several mills were mothballed, Leading to layoffs for large quantities of workers.  In some areas such as Pittsburgh the unemployment levels reached 17.1 percent in the area and 10.8 percent nationwide (Winant). The pressure of unemployment on potential steel workers meant that they were forced to search for different ways of earning. For some this meant that women of the house who would traditionally taken the role of homemaker were forced to search for employment. This shows a new class of women workers entering the workforce. While for Black Americans the situation was even worse with racial discrimination being prevailing problem within the country, unemployment rates were even worse being almost at a point of a depression hitting 25 percent for black Americans. It was also far more likely for black workers to be laid off first and for longer in comparison to their white counterparts despite possessing the same level of skill (Winant). The large numbers of unemployed workers were forced to find work and they often ended up working jobs in the service industry. The service industry gave far lower salaries to workers with nursing aides as earning only 15,000 dollars a year. Furthermore the lack of welfare available to the unemployed was amplified by the Reagan administration. The government believed that people must be self sufficient a prominent example of this is the rollback of assistance from 10-30,000 people in Pittsburgh. Essentially, the working class was recycled into poverty and backed into a linear labor market, which forced workers to take low paying jobs with no assistance from the government.

The mass unemployment created by layoffs in the prominent steel industry of Pennsylvania, low paying jobs available in the market and a flurry of financial crises hitting the state government with the loss of industrial taxation created an atmosphere of economic desperation which would serve as the basis for the recycling of the working class. The declining strength of labor unions after the riots of 1968 meant that they were unable to reverse the wage cuts faced by workers. Politically speaking, the conservative policies of the Reagan administration which favored a more self-sufficient citizen had cut the scale of welfare programs meaning the newly unemployed people had no safety to fall back to. The addition of women to the workforce created a new dynamic for families to deal with, both husband and wife working would result in a lack of population growth as a social consequence. With the tough economic conditions and unemployment many of the working class would turn to suicide and alcohol as ways of escape. The deterioration of mental health was a direct consequence of the deindustrialization process.

I believe that social welfare was targeted by the conservative Reagan administration as it was seen as a handout which rewarded the undeserving. The conservatives who had put Reagan in power had believed that the new generation had gotten everything handed to them on a silver platter. Slashing welfare was the conservative governments way off taking away these handouts.