“ Nobody is starving yet , but incomes are definitely down , ” he said , noting that homes are colder , that neighbors turn on just two lamps after dark where they once used five and that people have stopped buying new clothes . Retail sales across Russia were down by 13.1 percent for the year ending in November , according to official statistics , with car sales off nearly 40 percent . The 100 or so workers at the giant Seydin Machine Tool Factory , once the pride of the city during the Soviet era , have not seen a paycheck for a year and recently received layoff personnel.endposition.na notices . They , too , have on occasion gathered in the main square to demand their back pay . The workers “ have to take to the streets ! ” they wrote in an open letter to Mr. Putin .

( Part III ) Sometimes it seemed that they were , like me , just slightly spoiled Americans , imbued with unreasonable boomer expectations for autonomy , glory , and ascension , and that their grievances were more theoretical than actual , more media - induced than experience - related . Before the rally in San Jose on June 2nd , I talk to a group of construction workers , each of whom is in some state of layoff personnel.endposition.firinglayoff : current , recent , chronic . One , who ’s hoping to get a job working construction on the Wall , rails against millennials , the unions , a minimum - wage hike for fast - food workers , and “ these people ” who get fired , then turn around and sue . I ask for examples .

( Part III ) Sometimes it seemed that they were , like me , just slightly spoiled Americans , imbued with unreasonable boomer expectations for autonomy , glory , and ascension , and that their grievances were more theoretical than actual , more media - induced than experience - related . Before the rally in San Jose on June 2nd , I talk to a group of construction workers , each of whom is in some state of layoff personnel.endposition.na : current , recent , chronic . One , who ’s hoping to get a job working construction on the Wall , rails against millennials , the unions , a minimum - wage hike for fast - food workers , and “ these people ” who get fired , then turn around and sue . I ask for examples .

“ Nobody is starving yet , but incomes are definitely down , ” he said , noting that homes are colder , that neighbors turn on just two lamps after dark where they once used five and that people have stopped buying new clothes . Retail sales across Russia were down by 13.1 percent for the year ending in November , according to official statistics , with car sales off nearly 40 percent . The 100 or so workers at the giant Seydin Machine Tool Factory , once the pride of the city during the Soviet era , have not seen a paycheck for a year and recently received layoff personnel.endposition.firinglayoff notices . They , too , have on occasion gathered in the main square to demand their back pay . The workers “ have to take to the streets ! ” they wrote in an open letter to Mr. Putin .

They were , generally , in favor of order and had a propensity toward the broadly normative , a certain squareness . They leaned toward skepticism ( they ’d believe it when they saw it , “ it ” being anything feelings - based , gauzy , liberal , or European ; i.e. , “ socialist ” ) . Some ( far from all ) had been touched by financial hardship — a layoff personnel.endposition.firinglayoff was common in many stories — and ( paradoxically , given their feelings about socialism ) felt that , while in that vulnerable state , they ’d been let down by their government . They were anti - regulation , pro small business , pro Second Amendment , suspicious of people on welfare , sensitive ( in a “ Do n’t tread on me ” way ) about any infringement whatsoever on their freedom . Alert to charges of racism , they would pre - counter these by pointing out that they had friends of all colors .