The actual numbers are surprising though.
1. Most of the decrease in the middle class was driven by MC people moving to the upper class
So
2. The ratio of lower class to upper class is actually lower than in the 70s.
Interesting point I never considered. Is the cut off for UC really just 1 million dollars in net worth? Seems implausible given house prices in places like California. Is essentially every home owner UC?
I think the bigger inequality we experience is less about individual income, and more an inequality that giant corporations run so much of the world and the people have so little representation & agency.
Watching your epi-pens go from $35 to $700 is a stark & present reminder that the very wealthy corporations are predatory as fuck, and that you are prey. And that nothing will save you. (Short of Linda Khan & the FTC starting actual anti-trust activities again.)
Maybe not the only factor, but a strong contributor. It's at least a few things:
- Broader awareness, as you suggest. Police violence didn't necessarily increase, but the number of videos documenting it did, as did the distribution.
- Highlight-reel effect on social media, so it feels like your peers are richer and happier than you. With previous generations' mass media, it felt like there was a separate "rich and famous" class, but the perception of the average person was a lot like yourself.
- Tribalism from market segmentation and the echo effect. So we learn less tolerance and our convictions get stronger without reasonable, respected counter-arguments.
- Actual increase in inequality through automation and globalization, without sufficient mechanisms (e.g., higher taxes, UBI, etc) to re-distribute the gains.
Seems to me the constant harping about it (both by media and loud voices) is a self-reinforcing story. In the actual meaning of the word "meme".
The world has never been more full of choices and opportunities (as in "things that one might do" - as opposed to a more limited but fashionable "next job one step up"). And extremes in the world are still just as irrelevant to our own lives as they have ever been - whether you envy Jacques Cousteau or Jeff Bezos. In that what they have is not added or removed from your life (although what they achieved added to our lives - if you see the distinction), but you are still free to use them as models and steer your life by them.
What has changed:
- the harping
- the spectrum of actual possibilities in what we can be
- our self-awareness that we fall short of what we might have been
This varies by country. The GINI Index for the United States which measures income inequality rose sharply from 1980 to 1993 and then has been fairly flat since.
