United States | News & Politics

That was the era of “made in Japan” — but you’re right; it was different mega corps running every facet of your life.

It was an era where a LOT of people were bankrupted and had to start again from nothing. The big difference was that doing so was possible at the time; this time around it means you’ll likely have no hope of ever owning property because there’s just enough time in one lifetime to get there, if that (for most people).

The top end of medical care is higher than it has ever been in the world. And stuff is available to more people than ever too - e.g. tiny villages in Africa can get vaccines that Americans refuse to take even. But access to programs such as Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid are closing up shop. Younger people are forced to pay into it but will never get the value out of it that older generations were able to. So while the programs ostensibly look to be still there, their "meaning" has changed, bigly.

Similarly with the top and bottom ends of knowledge - except it was far easier to afford a college education when it was a fifth of the cost that it today, and you used to be able to Google pretty much anything, but now all that is shown are ads, ads, and more ads (SEOs have seen to that - tbf AI stuff is helping but it is extremely unreliable and soon enough that will fall prey to SEO stuff too).

But the biggest issue may be affordability of housing: having cool phones that can play games is nice and all, but what else in life could possibly compare with being able to afford your very own home? Even if bought at age 40-60? One answer to that is having a semi-permanent "job", compared to a shorter-term position in today's gig economy (there was some article saying that nearly all positions created in 2020-2 were short term ones, though ofc I can never find this article again on Google).

People today have little hope for the future. Neither Trump nor Biden (nor Mitch McConnell nor Nancy Pelosi, now Hakeem Jeffries, etc.) seems to be able to provide that. Nor could they even on theoretical grounds due to the forces at work of automation and globalization. But perhaps there is reason for hope? If so, someone smarter than I would need to explain it, and even find it first. "The economy" has grown for almost a hundred years... but at this point whether that unrestrained growth pattern seems sustainable or not is besides the point, since "the economy" doesn't seem to be trickling down any to the people who want to share in the good fortune of "America". But yeah... maybe it will get better? Or maybe it's Maybelline?

List those financial hardships then, with sources please.