I’m partial to the Mr. Money Mustache framing of dining out: hiring a team of servants to cook a delicious meal for us and then clean up afterwards IS extravagant. There are no two ways about it - getting other people to do work for you is expensive, and lots of people can’t afford it. The problem isn’t that services are too expensive - it’s that we as Americans have come to feel entitled to being served, and we’re constantly comparing our lives to those of the extravagantly wealthy.
A middle class American is, in fact, extravagantly wealthy if you zoom out to a global scale. We just take how amazing things are completely for granted, and then have the audacity to complain about it.
Interesting. I do think your point around higher income individuals getting used to cheap services is one of the main reasons those groups are 'unhappy'. Uber/Lyft is an interesting example to me - due to zero interest rates and very low labor costs (along with other labor cutting measures) being driven around felt like an economically sustainable situation. Now that this reversed, it turns out isn't. Which brings to the problem of alternative transportation investment - many cities and urban areas had no reason to invest in public transit (a very cheap and productive transport method) because everyone could afford cars/being driven around. With the change in interest rates, we are now heavily underinvested in alternative forms of transport.
Typo: has labor force participation "not improved for ME" or "for men"? It comes out amusing if you meant yourself.
Is it possible to have a practical economic discussion in a politically pluralistic society that is in continuous campaign mode?
I’m partial to the Mr. Money Mustache framing of dining out: hiring a team of servants to cook a delicious meal for us and then clean up afterwards IS extravagant. There are no two ways about it - getting other people to do work for you is expensive, and lots of people can’t afford it. The problem isn’t that services are too expensive - it’s that we as Americans have come to feel entitled to being served, and we’re constantly comparing our lives to those of the extravagantly wealthy.
A middle class American is, in fact, extravagantly wealthy if you zoom out to a global scale. We just take how amazing things are completely for granted, and then have the audacity to complain about it.
Interesting. I do think your point around higher income individuals getting used to cheap services is one of the main reasons those groups are 'unhappy'. Uber/Lyft is an interesting example to me - due to zero interest rates and very low labor costs (along with other labor cutting measures) being driven around felt like an economically sustainable situation. Now that this reversed, it turns out isn't. Which brings to the problem of alternative transportation investment - many cities and urban areas had no reason to invest in public transit (a very cheap and productive transport method) because everyone could afford cars/being driven around. With the change in interest rates, we are now heavily underinvested in alternative forms of transport.