Commonwealth Club Event: "Politics, the Working Class & the American Dream"

Join the Commonwealth Club of California on May 13, 2024 to hear Batya Ungar-Sargon discuss her new book, Second Class: How the Elites Betrayed America's Working Men and Women.

HOW TO WATCH:
This event is $10 for online tickets, and you must register at the link below, at which point you'll be emailed a link to the online event - https://commonwealthclub.my.salesforce-sites.com/ticket/#/instances/a0FVb0000007oo5MAA

NOTE: This event is free for members of the Commonwealth Club of California. Membership costs just $10/month and you can cancel at any time. To become a member, go to: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/membership

EVENT DESCRIPTION:
Who is the American working class? Do they still have a fair shot at the American Dream? What do they think about their chances to secure the hallmarks of a middle-class life?

Newsweek’s Batya Ungar-Sargon visited states across the nation to speak with members of the American working-class fighting tooth and nail to survive. In her new book Second Class, working-class Americans of all races, political orientations, and occupations share their stories—cleaning ladies, health care aides, police officers, truck drivers, fast food workers, electricians, and more. In their own words, these working-class Americans told Ungar-Sargon the struggles and triumphs of their increasingly precarious lives, as well as what policies they think would improve them. Ungar-Sargon’s reporting and research on America’s emergent class divide reveals people for whom the most basic elements of a secure and stable life are increasingly out of reach for those without a college education.

She says America has broken its contract with its laboring class. So, how do we get back to the American Dream? How do we once again become the land of opportunity, the promised land where hard work and commitment to family are enough to protect you from poverty? Ungar-Sargon says all it would take is for those in power to once again respect the dignity of work—and the American worker.

ABOUT THE SPEAKER & MODERATOR:

• Batya Ungar-Sargon is the deputy opinion editor of Newsweek and cohost of Newsweek​’s pod­cast, "The Debate". She is a fel­low of the Civil Soci­ety Fel­low­ship, a Part­ner­ship of ADL and The Aspen Insti­tute, and a mem­ber of the Aspen Glob­al Lead­er­ship Net­work. Before moving to Newsweek, she was the opinion editor of the Forward, the largest Jewish media outlet in America. Along with Second Class, she is also the author of the book Bad News: How Woke Media Is Undermining Democracy (2021). She holds a PhD in English literature from the University of California, Berkeley.
• George Hammond, the moderator, is a retired lawyer who now serves as the Chairman of the Humanities Forum at The Commonwealth Club of California. He's the author of six philosophical books on issues in rational idealism, theoretical physics, Plato's theory, early Christianity, the Soviet Union, psychology, and constitutional law.

ABOUT THE EVENT HOST:
The Commonwealth Club of California is the nation's oldest and largest public affairs forum. Every year, they present more than 450 forums on topics ranging across politics, culture, society and the economy. Their stated mission is to be the leading national forum open to all for the impartial discussion of public issues important to the membership, community and nation. To learn more, go to: https://www.commonwealthclub.org/who-we-are
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