The Hidden and Deadly Bias of Class

White working-class voters have been a key building block of the Republican coalition since the rise of the Reagan Democrats 35 years ago. You would think that the party’s presidential candidates would want to respond to the heartbreaking crisis these Americans are facing.

Two Princeton economists, Angus Deaton and Anne Case, issued a study last week that should push what the writers Richard Sennett and Jonathan Cobb called the “hidden injuries of class” to the center of our political conversation. Deaton and Case found that the death rates for whites 45 to 54 who never attended college increased by 134 deaths per 100,000 people between 1999 and 2014. They unearthed a startling rise in suicides as well as diseases related to alcohol and drugs.

It's Time To Bring Back The Term 'Working Class,' New University Of Calgary Report Says

Who are these middle-class Canadians that politicians talk about so much?

The odds are you’re one of them.

The term “middle class” is so nebulous in Canada that it can include people earning less than $20,000 a year or someone who earns $100,000 a year, depending on which statistician or political party you ask.

The question of whether the middle class is making strides is also a matter of perspective.