The pressures he describes seem correct and mirror what I’ve seen.
Think he’s wrong about this being close to blowing up. Think that’s coloured by his own personal situation. I suspect unfortunately the powers that be correctly read the situation as significantly more room to squeeze.
It might read as bad to usa ears but keep in mind there are people breaking down ships with zero safety, zero job security, low pay, bad equipment and certain heath impact etc. People will bear crazy stuff and still show up to work
The election of Trump could be regarded as "blowing up". I recall someone saying, "I can't throw a molotov cocktail through the window of the White House, but I can throw a Trump." That is, at least some people voted for Trump as a deliberate attack on the powers that be.
An effective attack? I would say, not really. (Has he improved the economic lot of the people who voted for him? No, he hasn't.) But the sentiment is there to "tear it all down", and it's resulting in action, at least at the voting booth.
Is it resulting in direct action in the streets? Not yet. But we may be closer than you think. (Or perhaps I should have said "not currently". BLM, for example, was kind of in that direction.)
> People will bear crazy stuff and still show up to work
Because the "in the real world" alternative is so much worse. In theory: "Workers unite!", in practice: "Lose your home".
If we continue down this trajectory, where work pays less each consecutive year, soon the majority will not have a home to lose.
Yeah then it would be mouths to feed, there is always a greater crisis than the one you are facing. And this is the entire reason folks are willing to work for peanuts, I have worked for 1$ an hr, and 100$ an hr. Sure I was less skilled but I wasn't 100x less skilled.
The difference is my desperation for the job. I had to pay for my studies back when 1$ an hour seemed like more than nothing.
Now working for less than 50$ feels like being exploited. This is the matter of perspective and situation in life, you can never fix it for everyone in the world. There will always will be people like me who will work for 1$ an hour because they have needs to meet and scholarships or handouts don't make up for it all.