@randomthoughts@mstdn.social
It's a perfect storm. A global pandemic has brought record unemployment just months before an extremely contentious election. Increasing inequality and declining quality of life for the lower and middle classes has eroded trust in the government in general. The government is pushing right even though the country as a whole is becoming more liberal overall. Police overreactions to protests/riots due to police brutality has eroded trust in the police and government. Now there's the risk that the government will shift for decades because of this.
It's not good.
@Demosthenes @randomthoughts@mstdn.social declining quality of life for the lower and middle classes is just not true
@valleyforge
For the lower class, it's 100% true. Housing, education, and medical costs have increased far faster than inflation and isn't appropriately measured in the Fed's measures of inflation.
For the middle class, it's more complicated. The middle class has bifurcated into a lower-middle class that is constantly at risk of slipping into the lower class, and an upper-middle class that is doing great.
@randomthoughts@mstdn.social
@Demosthenes @randomthoughts@mstdn.social Real median household income rose 6.8% from 2018 to 2019 and poverty rates were at a historic low before the pandemic.
"The 2019 poverty rate of 10.5 percent is the lowest rate observed since estimates were initially published in 1959"
I haven't seen data for what you're saying about the middle class.
https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-270.html
