This post is interesting, but I think it fails to do enough to provide possible causal mechanisms to help folks really think about this. It’s a lot of worrying trends, which are good to worry about and an important start, but for me this post is missing something it really needs. So, let me see if I can provide a simple story that might make sense of the trend and give us some clues about how much to worry.
Lately, times have been getting harder for a large number of folks in Western countries. There’s less slack in the system. Historically, left-coded positions have existed only when there’s sufficient slack, since people don’t care about equity or even equality when they aren’t sure if they’ll have enough grain to survive the winter—all they want is to at least get by. We may not be on the verge of actual famine, but despite rising absolute wealth, relative perceptions of wealth are falling among the working class and some of the professional class. Some of this is real, and some of this is hedonic treadmill, failing to recognize the tide that has lifted all boats. Regardless, the experience of decline, even if it is only relative to other people in the same society, leads to a loss of purpose and a desire for a return to the good old days. The political implications follow naturally.
This post is interesting, but I think it fails to do enough to provide possible causal mechanisms to help folks really think about this. It’s a lot of worrying trends, which are good to worry about and an important start, but for me this post is missing something it really needs. So, let me see if I can provide a simple story that might make sense of the trend and give us some clues about how much to worry.
Lately, times have been getting harder for a large number of folks in Western countries. There’s less slack in the system. Historically, left-coded positions have existed only when there’s sufficient slack, since people don’t care about equity or even equality when they aren’t sure if they’ll have enough grain to survive the winter—all they want is to at least get by. We may not be on the verge of actual famine, but despite rising absolute wealth, relative perceptions of wealth are falling among the working class and some of the professional class. Some of this is real, and some of this is hedonic treadmill, failing to recognize the tide that has lifted all boats. Regardless, the experience of decline, even if it is only relative to other people in the same society, leads to a loss of purpose and a desire for a return to the good old days. The political implications follow naturally.