| Perhaps they are trying to sway public mentality to be more accepting of a more modest lifestyle, but... Most of what is viewed as "The American Dream" was indeed an unsustainable and overinflated dream, built on debt and fraud. But yeah, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. (At least, relative to each other.) That's kind of the point of technology. But all the while, the baseline the poor live at does rise quite a bit above what had come before. Our parents and grandparents may have been able to buy a house, but it was half the size (or less) of what most people would consider to be a resonably sized house today. And their houses weren't packed with appliances and gizmos for every need. They may have been able to buy a car, but it would have lacked so many features and required so much maintenance, for a company to produce such a car today would be considered negligent to the point of being worthless. They may have had pensions, but those pensions were built on debt and lies, and today we're seeing the pensions have very little to actually back them up. (In other words, they really didn't really have legit pensions.) They may have been able to afford kids, but they didn't spend hardly anything on them compared to what people today seem to think they "have to" spend on their kids. They may have been able to retire, but part of that was larger communities and several generations living very near each other or even in the same house. There was no expensive health care because the healthcare industry had very little to offer anyone. There was no huge retirement community expenses because granny lived with the family and everyone chipped in to take care of her. They may have been able to get a job, but only half the population was able to get a job. And no, most of the jobs didn't have benefits. Overall, my point is many people have an overblown perspective of how good the past is or what normal is supposed to be. Today's standards of living may be seing stagnation - or even a bit of a backslide - but I don't think it's all that worrisome or oppressive in the grand scheme of things. Rather, our expectations what standards of living "should" be are a bit unrealistic. You may see this and claim that I've drunked thE Kool-Aid or something and been brainwashed by this article and simialr media. I would counter that I think you've been brainwashed by movies, TV, and Facebook into thinking everyone is supposed to have respectable homes, solid jobs with bennies, and financial security. Very few people ever actually have that kind of life. |
We aren't talking a small backslide. Who gives a fuck if your fridge can make ice if you can't afford to buy a place to keep your fridge.
>I think you've been brainwashed by movies, TV, and Facebook into thinking everyone is supposed to have respectable homes, solid jobs with bennies, and financial security. Very few people ever actually have that kind of life.
No, the middle class most assuredly did have that kind of life. That's what made them middle class.