Trump Era Confronts Organized Labor with Gravest Crisis in Decades
– The Washington Post
President-elect Donald Trump’s Twitter attack this week on a union official, followed by his choice of a labor secretary who has criticized new worker protections, has rattled leaders of the American labor movement, who fear unions may be facing their gravest crisis in decades.

Breitbart Rips Trump’s Labor Pick
– POLITICO
Donald Trump on Thursday faced criticism over his labor secretary pick from an unlikely source: Breitbart News, a right-wing media organization that championed Trump’s presidential candidacy. As reports spread of the Trump transition team’s plan to announce restaurant chain CEO Andrew Puzder as head of the Labor Department, Breitbart released a piece picking apart the executive’s views, writing that he “stands diametrically opposed to Trump’s signature issues on trade and immigration.”

How to Kill the Middle Class
– The Atlantic
Beginning with the elections of 2010, when a wave of Tea Party, anti-government candidates won statewide offices across the country, states have passed legislation to diminish the power of unions. The Atlantic looks at how this trend has impacted America’s middle-class.

A Dilemma for Humanity: Stark Inequality or Total War
– The New York Times
An interesting historical analysis offering that only large-scale global events have the capability to address aggressively address income inequality. From the Stone Age to the present, ever since humankind produced a surplus to hoard, economic development has almost always led to greater inequality. There is one big thing with the power to stop this dynamic, but it’s not pretty: violence.