[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.