I think Bernie missed a generation. We don't have a labor class. We have mostly a "gig" economy. Most people under the age of 50 have never had a steady job. Manufacturing, the golden goose, was slaughtered and the good jobs went to foreign countries or were automated.

Of the 23% of us in the middle class, most have acquired skills that are transferrable to several different jobs and occupations. I spent several years listening to vocational testimony. Many skills become obsolete...displaced by technology. Society has progressed at the expense of manual labor.

As I've been saying, IMHO we didn't lose to Trump on the economy. That's just a pretext. We lost to psy ops that targeted the "other" to visceral, not rational voters. Most voted to screw themselves economically and physically.