We’re Living in The Age of Downward Mobility
One of my friends is doing her best to live off the grid. She hasn’t worked a full-time job in years. Instead she and her family hop between side hustles, living out of an old ranch house her family owns. They’ve skipped out on almost a hundred thousand dollars in student debt. They don’t report their income. They don’t see doctors. They don’t worry about health insurance. They homeschool their children.
There’s a fair amount of privilege baked in here. Most of us don’t have parents with acres of farmland just sitting around.
This is becoming the new dream for more Americans. We’re getting ready to ditch the system. If we’re not opting for alternative currencies, we’re looking for other ways to escape. What’s left of the middle class is financed by debt, and it’s teetering toward collapse. Anyone who hasn’t achieved that small slice of suburban heaven is about to call it quits.
Most of us grew up on the assumption that social security and a 401K would cuddle us through old age. Our parents would die gently in their sleep one night, leaving us with a generous inheritance.
