2 ms·

You had the post-WW2 boom, which then wound down in the 80s/90s but there was a small resurgence of "everyone is getting rich" in the late-90s Dotcom bubble and

You had the post-WW2 boom, which then wound down in the 80s/90s but there was a small resurgence of "everyone is getting rich" in the late-90s Dotcom bubble and then finally the run up into the housing bubble. Since we have fallen back to a more historically traditional model - hard work can advance your life, but you are capped within certain bands by where you start, by and large. Where you start is regional, family money & upbringing and then finally level/quality/quantity of educational attainment. Of course all 3 of those things are hugely interlinked. And if you start too low it's exceedingly hard to break out. If you start sufficiently high, its very hard to fall down. The wool has been pulled from GenZs eyes (or was never there, given what they've grown up in) and they see the world for what it has become..

myth_drannon 5y ago
More like it was the collapse of USSR in the 80's and diminished threat of Communism in west that caused oligarchs to be bolder and grab more share of national wealth. Specially in the last year or two when only select few got extremely rich by loading debt on the rest of society. I wonder if Amazon's working conditions would be possible in the 60-70s with strong labour unions back then.
- steveBK123 5y ago
  Sure that's a factor, but people discount how much 1940-1980 was a historical anomaly for the US. Virtually every advanced industrial economy with which we competed had their industrial base leveled and colonial empires in full retreat. They then spent 1950s-1970s rebuilding. Then China came online as an industrial power in the 1980s-2000s. By 2000 the scale of competition on cost and/or quality with our industrial might was at a scale we had not seen in generations.
- medvezhenok 5y ago
  It's also some of the Russian oligarch money that came in to western institutions (via shell companies etc - some revealed in the Panama papers) and started influencing the discourse here. Especially in the last 20 years. They finance a lot of the disinformation campaigns, the social division, etc. In the times of the USSR there were surely influence campaigns, but people were more on the look out for it and there was a common external target, so it was easier to unite the country.
fullstop 5y ago
> The wool has been pulled from GenZs eyes (or was never there, given what they've grown up in) and they see the world for what it has become.. I have gen z kids so I see a lot of what goes on in their schools and how their peers act, and it does give me some hope for the future. They are the most inclusive bunch of kids that I've ever seen -- they are incredibly accepting of differences and do not tolerate bullying. It will be interesting to see what they do in the future.

myth_drannon 5y ago

More like it was the collapse of USSR in the 80's and diminished threat of Communism in west that caused oligarchs to be bolder and grab more share of national wealth. Specially in the last year or two when only select few got extremely rich by loading debt on the rest of society. I wonder if Amazon's working conditions would be possible in the 60-70s with strong labour unions back then.

steveBK123 5y ago
Sure that's a factor, but people discount how much 1940-1980 was a historical anomaly for the US. Virtually every advanced industrial economy with which we competed had their industrial base leveled and colonial empires in full retreat. They then spent 1950s-1970s rebuilding. Then China came online as an industrial power in the 1980s-2000s. By 2000 the scale of competition on cost and/or quality with our industrial might was at a scale we had not seen in generations.
medvezhenok 5y ago
It's also some of the Russian oligarch money that came in to western institutions (via shell companies etc - some revealed in the Panama papers) and started influencing the discourse here. Especially in the last 20 years. They finance a lot of the disinformation campaigns, the social division, etc. In the times of the USSR there were surely influence campaigns, but people were more on the look out for it and there was a common external target, so it was easier to unite the country.

fullstop 5y ago

> The wool has been pulled from GenZs eyes (or was never there, given what they've grown up in) and they see the world for what it has become.. I have gen z kids so I see a lot of what goes on in their schools and how their peers act, and it does give me some hope for the future. They are the most inclusive bunch of kids that I've ever seen -- they are incredibly accepting of differences and do not tolerate bullying. It will be interesting to see what they do in the future.