When the White Collars Feel Threatened – A Reply to Terence Tao

This is written from another country, our development was different. The problems were similar, but the country was smaller and overall economic growth good enough to give you a chance to catch up.

That said, a lot of the American blue collars adapted as well, usually by moving out of the Rust Belt and doing something else somewhere else. That is why so many industrial cities shrank compared to the 1960s. Only these people are scattered and not noticeable; they don't form a consistent voter bloc and cannot elect their candidate anywhere, as there is no coordination among them.

You will always notice a group more than a scattered set of people, and someone speaking aloud vs. thousands of the silent ones.

But I believe that the Hillbilly Elegy was a hit precisely because many more people have some roots in a similar community and it is part of their family heritage, even though they are New Yorkers or Angelenos now.