Grand Theft Capital: What Workers Should Know about the Affordability Crisis
Sep 2026 · NYU Press
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A New York Times headline in early 2026 announced what many workers have known for years: “For Many Cash-Strapped Americans, ‘Basic Living has become a Burden.’” Living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little or no savings for emergencies, workers are struggling to make ends meet. It should come as no surprise that, without a clear sense of the problem’s source, workers are left blaming easy targets: immigrants, people of color, religious minorities, or damaging decisions by a few, corporate bad apples.
But as Grand Theft Capital demonstrates, workers’ current conditions are the result of a deliberate, long-term effort by the corporate rich to increase their own wealth largely by extracting it from workers’ pockets. The evidence shows that workers’ wages have not kept pace with rising costs and that they’re feeling unhappy and stressed on the job. This partly reflects the weakening of worker power as union membership has declined over the past sixty years—reaching levels last seen before the major unionization wave of the 1930s. Regardless of what mainstream economists and the Consumer Price Index suggest, successive generations of young workers have been confronting difficult and precarious employment conditions. On top of it all, workers of all generations are alarmed at the possibility of job obsolescence given the looming threat of AI and automation.
In the face of this evidence, Grand Theft Capital offers a clear answer to the source of the problem and charts a clear way forward. What workers are facing is nothing less than a class war waged from above; the only solution is an equally determined class war from below.
But as Grand Theft Capital demonstrates, workers’ current conditions are the result of a deliberate, long-term effort by the corporate rich to increase their own wealth largely by extracting it from workers’ pockets. The evidence shows that workers’ wages have not kept pace with rising costs and that they’re feeling unhappy and stressed on the job. This partly reflects the weakening of worker power as union membership has declined over the past sixty years—reaching levels last seen before the major unionization wave of the 1930s. Regardless of what mainstream economists and the Consumer Price Index suggest, successive generations of young workers have been confronting difficult and precarious employment conditions. On top of it all, workers of all generations are alarmed at the possibility of job obsolescence given the looming threat of AI and automation.
In the face of this evidence, Grand Theft Capital offers a clear answer to the source of the problem and charts a clear way forward. What workers are facing is nothing less than a class war waged from above; the only solution is an equally determined class war from below.
A New York Times headline in early 2026 announced what many workers have known for years: “For Many Cash-Strapped Americans, ‘Basic Living has become a Burden.’” Living paycheck-to-paycheck, with little or no savings for emergencies, workers are struggling to make ends meet. It should come as no ...
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About the author
John Bellamy Foster (Author)
John Bellamy Foster is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Oregon and editor of Monthly Review. He has written many books including The Robbery of Nature (with Brett Clark) and The Return of Nature, which won the Deutscher Memorial Prize.
Fred Magdoff (Author)
Fred Magdoff taught at the University of Vermont in Burlington, is a director of the Monthly Review Foundation, and has written on political economy for many years. He is most recently the author (with John Bellamy Foster) of The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences (Monthly Review Press).
John Bellamy Foster is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Oregon and editor of Monthly Review. He has written many books including The Robbery of Nature (with Brett Clark) and The Return of Nature, which won the Deutscher Memorial Prize.
Fred Magdoff (Author)
Fred Magdoff taught at the University of Vermont in Burlington, is a director of the Monthly Review Foundation, and has written on political economy for many years. He is most recently the author (with John Bellamy Foster) of The Great Financial Crisis: Causes and Consequences (Monthly Review Press).
John Bellamy Foster (Author)
John Bellamy Foster is a Professor Emeritus of Sociology at the University of Oregon and editor of Monthly Review. He has written many books including The Robbery of Nature (with Brett Clark) and The Return of Nature, which won the Deutscher Memorial Prize.
Fred Mag...
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