A lot more people are going to slide down the economic ladder as decades worth of economically insane policies catch up to us. From Charles Hugh Smith at oftwominds.com:
We can anticipate a sharp reduction in conventional financial security in the next decade as the waste is growth / Landfill Economy runs out of cheap materials to throw away.
There are many pathways to life on the margins of the economy and society. Let’s consider three:
1. Our character and upbringing leave us unable to fill the work slots valued by employers. Constitutionally incapable of fitting into the conventional slots, we find our way to (or end up in) the margins. (I raise my hand here.)
2. Opportunities to lock in the security of steady work that can support a family are scarce in one’s locale, class, caste, etc. Most people are thus relegated to life on the margins.
3. Circumstances change, and the foundations of our security melt into air. The conventional socio-economic slots that provide security become scarce and we slip-slide from predictable security to the insecurity of the margins. This is downward mobility, a slide accelerated by high-cost lifestyles that require reliably high incomes.
Those who find themselves incapable of fitting into the conventional slots still have to support themselves (unless they chose their parents wisely and are trust-funders living off family wealth). Despite their unconventionality, the unconventional still dream of conventional success (recognition, admiration, earning lots of money, etc.) arising from their creative endeavors.
