{{ The lower middle class doesn’t have a discipline problem. They have a proximity problem: close enough to wealth to absorb its costs, never close enough to access its compounding returns.
Consider the experience of dental hygienists in suburban metros who’ve watched their neighborhoods transform around them. Apartments that were workforce housing a decade ago now sit amid luxury developments. Rents climb while nearby grocery stores shift to high-end organic brands because the neighborhood demographics changed. Pediatricians in medical complexes increasingly cater to concierge patients; wait times triple while co-pays creep up. These workers didn’t move to wealthier neighborhoods. The wealthier neighborhood moved to them.
This pattern reflects what economists sometimes call “amenity capture,” where rising affluence in a geographic area drives up the cost of baseline goods and services, not because those goods improved, but because the local market now prices to a wealthier customer base. And workers can’t just opt out. }}
intercst
250 years!
