[Clubber]

I lived through the dot bomb 22 years ago and was unemployed for 6 months. Had to move to another city to find work. It's been this way since probably the beginning of the 1980s. Neoliberalism brought in by Reagan and reinforced by Clinton (and everyone since) killed that world.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neoliberalism

[ghaff]

The rust belt was rusting since before Reagan. From a well-paid secure middle-class [added: blue collar] jobs perspective it was the loss of all those union jobs to foreign competition that made that lifestyle a lot harder. I wouldn't blame any specific president or individual.

Dot bomb was a specific nuclear winter for tech which I personally only managed to get through, albeit with not great earnings through the 2000s, with great fortune as I landed something new almost immediately. The broader economy was much less affected just as tech was less affected by 2008.

[latency-guy2]

I'll accept that, only if you accept the times you had it good in life were also because of this boogeyman version of "neoliberalism" that you hate.