Janitors, Outsourcing, and the Rise of Inequality

4. When unions are gone, and investors expect a steady stream of higher dividends, the middle class gets hollowed out. Economists and efficiency experts think this is a good thing: core competency for the intelligentsia and the crumbs for contractors.

In short, contracting is great if you have skills, not great if you don’t. Marta Ramos is in a dead-end job even though she works for one of the most profitable companies in the world.

I guess it all depends on what a nation values. Capitalism has eclipsed its dream for worker opportunity, creating class inequality. The U.S. will have to come to grips with these changes sooner rather than later when the tension between the haves and have-nots becomes unsustainable.

— Christine McM, Massachusetts, reacting to an article comparing the lives of two janitors, one at Apple, and another who once worked at Eastman Kodak.