[spaceman_2020]

I’m currently in Chiang Mai, a city known for its digital nomad/entrepreneurship scene. Lots of European natives here who’ve been in the city for months. Many have even moved here permanently.

Talking to them, there is a definite sense of pessimism, bordering on fatalism, about them. Some of this is reflected in salaries - skilled white collar workers get paid well on average in Europe, but their salaries haven’t kept pace with the rest of the world, including (and especially) America. Even as an Indian, most of my peer group makes similar wages as their European counterparts, without even factoring in purchasing power.

What I mean to say is that it might all seem to be crumbling down now, but the decline seems to have started a while back.

[themitigating]

Their views about the economic situation have no value unless they are economists.

You're dressing up what at best is anecdotal evidence, and at worst heresay, with a long post that sounds mature and well thought out but it's not.

[Gud]

The Indian middle class makes about the same(and often more) money than their European counterparts, I agree. But the Indian middle class is a much smaller part of the population, and the working class in particularly Western Europe has a much, much, much higher standard of living than the working class in India.

[TheLoafOfBread]

As a European, there might be a stagnation for few years as energy sources will be needed to be resolved first, otherwise relatively low wages are compromise for relatively high taxation and thus bearable public services, like working public transport or public hospitals.