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Labor
We Traded Good Jobs for Cheap Crap, But Now the Crap Isn’t Cheap
We gave up solid jobs so we could buy junk from halfway across the world. Now the junk costs more, and we’re still broke.
Back in the 1980s, America struck a devil’s bargain: stagnant wages in exchange for cheap goods. It was a bad deal then and it’s about to get worse.
Even the poor could afford to stuff their homes so full of stuff that we had to launch whole new businesses dedicated to decluttering. We had to get rid of all our old shit so we could buy shiny new shit.
It’s true that millions struggled to afford housing, healthcare and education, but we could often borrow the money and (until the last few years) so we could pile on debt to get the things we wanted or needed. Many couldn’t tell the difference between those two things.
We ultimately concluded we didn’t need no education anyway because we could always become a plumber. It was easier to decide college was a bad deal than to worry about paying for it.
How’s that working out for us now?
I would say not so good. Not everybody realizes yet how much more expensive the…
