America's working class is an endangered species. The factory work’s gone overseas, the unions’ backs are broken, and everything’s been automated, anyway. That is and isn’t true, of course. With the exception of trades such as law enforcement and firefighting, which can’t be outsourced or diced up into penny-ante shifts, many traditional blue-collar jobs have become rarer. But the working class itself is still around, its members surfing relatives’ couches, living off credit cards, taking out staggering college loans for degrees they can’t finish or can’t use, and piecing together work at coffee shops, retailers, and security companies.

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