more like society becoming more bifurcated between the smart and successfull vs. everyone else, instead of everyone becoming dumber.
The broadcast components of our culture which must appeal to the largest cross-section of society do indeed cater more to the lower end compared to years past, because that is where the largest number of people still are. Without the middle class glue holding the top and bottom together, the center of gravity of popular culture gradually gets lower.
This tends to drown out the first trend I mentioned, the growth of the upper middle class, if you stick to broadcast media like movies, TV, and radio. But when you look at other forms of media which target cultural niches, you'll find the upper end is alive and well.
I would hardly disagree with that statement.
Larger portion of the middle class gets downgraded not upgraded.
Some parts of their life get better due to advancements we make in science, but all other aspects are worse and worse.
An example can be “property ownership” - the amount of ppl that own property and are part of the middle class is decreasing year over year in developed countries.
We are slowly getting to the point where we can consider our grandparents or parents as millionairs in current standards.
Global inflation slowly kills middle class and no - ppl are not having it better in aspects that actually matter in long term. We are at crisis now.
China by itself can skew global average by a huge margin due to sheer amount of ppl living there.
But even in China market observes middle class crisis - slowing down or ppl getting back to lower class.
Some US data: https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2018/09/06/the-america... (long term, not the headline)
https://www.cato.org/blog/middle-class-shrinking-households-...
https://www.rismedia.com/2019/09/03/is-middle-class-homeowne...
It doesnt matter how much money you make, if that money cannot buy you a shelter.
You might disagree but next years are only going to make that crisis worse and worse.
And more and more families will be not able to sustain the level of life our parents had - even whwn working 5 times as hard.
And any very recent change was probably caused by pandemic and reaction to it, not a part of some trend.. to revert it, we should stop doing what we were doing for the past year or two :)
Btw iirc price to income ratio in the us is also one of the lowest in developed countries, or on par.
Long term, I think the thinning middle class narrative is closer to being merely humanities grads complaining that they cannot afford to live in NYC and SF, than to any real issue ;)
How can you say my grandpa that was able to afford a big house and feed 5 children working alone as grandma was taking care pf the house - was not living in better financial condition than me who makes 3 times as much money as he did but I cannot afford half of what he could…
The current definition of the middle class is constantly changing based on income only - which makes no sense. It should be calculated towards buying power you have.
And buying power over the years for ppl like me and younger only decreases. Thus -> middle class crisis is going to hit the fan like really soon.
It already did in China and its going to hit US too.
Anecdotes are not data. According to this (quick google): https://dqydj.com/historical-home-prices/ inflation adjusted median price increased by about 80-95% since ~1970 (assuming ~25 years per generation for "grandpa"), depending on whether you include the COVID spike. According to this, however: https://247wallst.com/special-report/2016/05/25/the-size-of-... median house size since 1970 increased by ~75%. That both calls "big house" into question, and puts the increase in price into perspective. Also, inflation adjusted income has increased by ~50% in the same time frame: https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/01/09/trends-.... So, housing has become expensive somewhat faster than income (but by far not 3x that you describe), in part because the houses are now much bigger (and not half the size that you imply for the 3x cost).
To put it more bluntly than in my previous post (and for reference I did not grow up in the USA), the main difference between your US generation and grandpa's, is that yours is far more entitled, while representing a far smaller slice of world economy. And, if my West Coast experience is any indication, the sub-slices of the generation tend to feel more entitled in inverse proportion to their actual economic contribution...
The orange one also hates brown people as much as they do and is unafraid to say it out loud.
Also, it’s just a bonus that their reality tv star really, really pisses off those rich educated folks in the city who “look down” them.
It was just about as competent and deadly as the Beer Hall Putsch.
Another huge portion or of the population really just care about getting wealthy, with litter regard for anything else.
Seriously, if you want to be rich, all you have to do is be somewhat bright and willing to be a Republican political operative.
See Madison Cawthorn, Marjorie Taylor Green, Sarah Palin, etc.
I’ve see it myself: some of the dumbest folks I went to school with are killing it in the GOP. Dumb as rocks.
Go and talk to them yourself. You’ll see.
Yes?
Being too intelligent seems to be a social disadvantage often and probably success for a lot of people requires hiding their intelligence.