Patrick Sheehan is a teacher and writer living in Detroit.
Nearly one in five workers in the United States is currently unemployed. The immediate catalyst for these gargantuan figures is the pandemic, but workers’ rights to “just cause” dismissals had long been eroded by a neoliberal war on labor.
A rising chorus of mainstream politicians and pundits wants you to put off retirement and work into your seventies. Don’t listen to them. We have plenty of resources to allow American workers to retire with dignity and enjoy their golden years without forcing them to keep working.
Detroit is evicting tens of thousands from their homes this year, even as it trumpets an urban revival.