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Before the industrial and technological revolutions, social mobility was a concept that coloured the most ambitious, ambitious, and fictional stories. Regardless of time and place, an individual’s social class was almost all the time irreversibly determined by the circumstances and background from which he got here.
After the Great Depression of the Nineteen Thirties, our nation’s leaders dreamed of making America the ruler of all, based on a ridiculously easy but compelling ideology—the American Dream. America vowed to be the land of opportunity, where anyone could turn out to be anything they desired to be. No matter what. Social and skilled mobility propelled America to latest heights—but most significantly, it set the stage for what would turn out to be a long time of parabolic growth and the birth of highly profitable, high-impact entertainment, finance, and sports industries.
Fast forward a little, and to your surprise, you would possibly be mistaken for pondering we have gone back in time. In today’s post-American Dream world, many people operate inside class constraints, just as they did in the nineteenth century. The realities that haunt us today are inescapable: they are embedded in bad monetary policy, growing contempt from other world powers, and the remnants of capitalism.
Not only has our parabolic growth stopped, but it appears like we have turned the clock back a few years. The only difference is that we have things like the iPhone and Uber Eats. Over the past few years of inflation, these luxuries have turn out to be available, while the cost of necessities like bills and rent has left the nation reeling.
They’ll be damned anyway if they do… They’ll be damned anyway if they do not.
According to the latest report from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Debt and Home Loans ReportAmericans have greater than $1.1 trillion in bank card debt. The days of outstanding balances trending negative as a result of “life-saving” stimulus checks cannot be behind us. All that continues to be are today’s problems fueled by yesterday’s solutions.
Sure, it’s been widely documented that COVID-19 relief has eased economic hardship, but it’s also possible that those self same checks may be partly responsible for the average Joe’s inevitable decline in purchasing power—a prime example of how those in power are not resistant to making bad, short-sighted decisions, despite the fact that making the right decisions is incredibly vital.
All this combined with the increasing number of corporate layoffs, the each day impact of servicing auto and mortgage debt resulting from tighter monetary policy, and many other aspects make life seem insurmountable immediately.
- Fed makes minimal progress on inflation despite higher rates of interest
- Even higher rates would expose the entire economy to systemic failure
- Aggressive monetary policy could backfire and force the Fed to seriously change and lower rates of interest
While none of the above comes as a surprise to most, a growing concern is the uncertainty of what might occur if apathy and hopelessness grip the general mood of the American population. Total chaos will likely ensue if the average American realizes that even the most prestigious jobs and degrees will not provide us with the life we have worked for a long time to realize.
The value of a college degree plummeted in the few short years following the pandemic, and at the same time, having any significant amount of debt became crippling. Sure, you are “smarter” than most, but the life a college education affords you is not something to brag about.
Month-long trips to Europe, luxury shopping sprees and tacky McMansions sound good on paper, but today they’re more or less out of reach for the overwhelming majority (despite the fact that social media sometimes convinces us otherwise). That said, 2024 marks a latest era of latest normal, although mockingly this latest normal is often the norm elsewhere.
Application
Life is difficult – it all the time has been. But it is not imagined to be that difficult. There was no indication that the good times of our past would not by some means find their way back to us. What we are currently experiencing is the American government’s best effort to maneuver the goalposts of the American dream. This way, the American machine can proceed to grow, given how difficult times are.
And if it means anything, even if Jerome Powell could stop inflation with a magic wand, do you think the elite would want that? Inflation is the average Joe’s worst enemy, but the wealthy man’s best friend. On the option to wealth, poor people may have to pay 45% capital gains tax or something, right? I’ll say it again: the game is unimaginable.
These are virtually inevitable consequences of late stage capitalism. Everyone is highly expert, well-connected and looking for work, and the work is getting harder and harder. And at the same time, every thing becomes dearer. Perhaps the most difficult obstacle to beat is consumerism. Our desire for more, our obsession with glamor in American culture, and the indisputable fact that we cannot escape all of it because of our entrenchment in social media is deeply disturbing.
I worry that we’re not too far from a world where “no,” “can’t” and “maybe next time” begin to turn out to be the norm. And yes, recessions and economic difficulties are a obligatory part of life; but that is not it. This is a marked shift in American history, where many of the luxuries that motivated us to work in the first place are slowly losing their reach, and it’s only a matter of time before something really goes improper.