Decline of the white working class spells trouble for Trump
The number of white working-class Americans dropped below 40% of the population for the first time last year, reflecting demographic shifts that could pose a challenge for President Donald Trump’s re-election in 2020.
White Americans without a four-year college represented 71% of the population in 1975. Their decline as a share of the population is expected to continue and they will no longer be the largest demographic group by 2034, according to a blog post Tuesday from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.
There’s no single cause for the decline. More Americans are seeking a college education, and leading causes of death — including the opioid epidemic, alcoholism and suicide — are hitting working-class whites hardest. And birth rates for whites are slowing compared with nonwhites.
“Whatever the cause, the decline of this group will undoubtedly continue to have lasting economic and social consequences for the U.S.,” researchers Bill Emmons, Ana Kent and Lowell Ricketts wrote in the blog post, which focused on the demographic trends and didn’t mention the political implications.
Among those consequences: the shrinking of one of Trump’s most reliable voting blocs. White voters without a college degree supported Trump by 66% to Hillary Clinton’s 29%, according to 2016 exit polls. Among men in that group, the margin was even higher, 71% to 23%.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/decline-of-the-white-working-class-spells-trouble-for-trump/ar-AAHMGHx?li=BBnbfcN
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