Perhaps the first order of business is to dispense with the overproduction of the term "elite". This is an artifact of the days when a top collegiate experience would usher an already well-connected person into well-regarded sinecures of national import and meaning (call that the Averell Harriman model).
The elite college experience has changed and, more importantly, the world of sinecures has changed. Most sinecures today are found in government positions that do not attract the "best and the brightest" and a strong overlay of corruption, municipal mismanagement, and partisan coverup crew formerly known as journalists. Think of the unhoused program managers in San Francisco or the emergency response managers in Maui or the conflicted CDC NIH mavens. These people make enormous salaries, are criminally bad at their jobs, and yet face zero accountability.
Boom. I'd add Freddie that the creator elites simply reflect the apotheosis of American individualism itself. Creating, standing out and being interesting are what we value in public in our society, NOT serving one's community humbly and without recognition. The objective growth in the upper-middle-class allowed millions "to take a day job while trying to become a novelist" but this is honestly what we valorize, even on Substack we reinforce it constantly. I had a kid cleaning my house last year who saw my business book "Ramping Your Brand," asked to buy a copy so he "could work on my personal brand." I gave it to him for free and he quit two months later! WTF!?
My wife's father gave some of the best advice I've heard on this: " If you want to earn a good living, you must find a career or job that people are willing to pay you for."
If these young people only understood that one concept, they would find some type of sustainable work, and then pursue their "creating" on the side. If the creation- music, art, or writing takes off, then they can gage whether or not this activity can sustain them on a regular basis.
These people have to remember there are many who are nowhere near elite, and will likely never have the path to success that the elites have had in their lifetimes. LIfe just ain't fair.
Is this more of a product of a decadent society than elite overproduction? We also have the issue of not enough U.S citizens getting STEM degrees anymore, so we are bringing in international hires through our university system and the H1B process. I work at a STEM institution and have met several students who received liberal arts/creative arts undergraduate degrees who learned from the school of hard knocks that they weren't going to be able to live a middle class life using their undergraduate degrees the way they had hoped to and were now coming back for 2nd bachelors or masters in STEM disciplines.
I have a slightly different angle on this. The problem isn't so much that we've been pooh-poohing normie white-collar jobs (the world never needed too many mediocre lawyers or accountants, and needs fewer every year as technology advances); it's that we have, on the one hand, been pooh-poohing the trades, while on the other hand we've been coddling the little eliteliings in school, telling them they're "writers" or "mathematicians" or "artists" when all they are is children beginning to learn. They're still children at 20, but having been told for a decade and a half that they have something special and unique to offer the world, they believe it. In very few cases is it the truth, and in most cases they, and we, would be better off if they learned to operate a crane or wire a house.
I think a lot of the dissatisfaction has to do with the visibility of success. There have always been lavish photo spreads of successful musicians, politicians, and professionally wealthy heirs and heiresses, but now there are millions of iterations on that theme, with new content to reinforce it minute by minute. Just living in a regular apartment in Manhattan (or Brooklyn) and doing work was enough of a success story 20 years ago. Now, unless you're showcasing your constant travel, fancy meals, and impeccable style you are some sort of slovenly underachiever. Even people who work all the time can feel like they're not doing enough when compared to the most sociopathic striver on Instagram.
I'm beginning to think that ignorance is indeed bliss, at least ignorance of all the contours and details of lives that appear to be "better" than your own. And then at the end we all croak and can no longer compare anything to anything, which seems to have been forgotten in our era of octogenarian business leaders and politicians.
The author has confused elite class with the chattering class that surrounds him in Brooklyn, NYC, NY. Brooklyn, NY, is no more or less representative of life in the USA than Bangor, ME, Chicago, IL, or Boise, ID.
Perhaps the first order of business is to dispense with the overproduction of the term "elite". This is an artifact of the days when a top collegiate experience would usher an already well-connected person into well-regarded sinecures of national import and meaning (call that the Averell Harriman model).
The elite college experience has changed and, more importantly, the world of sinecures has changed. Most sinecures today are found in government positions that do not attract the "best and the brightest" and a strong overlay of corruption, municipal mismanagement, and partisan coverup crew formerly known as journalists. Think of the unhoused program managers in San Francisco or the emergency response managers in Maui or the conflicted CDC NIH mavens. These people make enormous salaries, are criminally bad at their jobs, and yet face zero accountability.
Boom. I'd add Freddie that the creator elites simply reflect the apotheosis of American individualism itself. Creating, standing out and being interesting are what we value in public in our society, NOT serving one's community humbly and without recognition. The objective growth in the upper-middle-class allowed millions "to take a day job while trying to become a novelist" but this is honestly what we valorize, even on Substack we reinforce it constantly. I had a kid cleaning my house last year who saw my business book "Ramping Your Brand," asked to buy a copy so he "could work on my personal brand." I gave it to him for free and he quit two months later! WTF!?
My wife's father gave some of the best advice I've heard on this: " If you want to earn a good living, you must find a career or job that people are willing to pay you for."
If these young people only understood that one concept, they would find some type of sustainable work, and then pursue their "creating" on the side. If the creation- music, art, or writing takes off, then they can gage whether or not this activity can sustain them on a regular basis.
These people have to remember there are many who are nowhere near elite, and will likely never have the path to success that the elites have had in their lifetimes. LIfe just ain't fair.
Is this more of a product of a decadent society than elite overproduction? We also have the issue of not enough U.S citizens getting STEM degrees anymore, so we are bringing in international hires through our university system and the H1B process. I work at a STEM institution and have met several students who received liberal arts/creative arts undergraduate degrees who learned from the school of hard knocks that they weren't going to be able to live a middle class life using their undergraduate degrees the way they had hoped to and were now coming back for 2nd bachelors or masters in STEM disciplines.
I have a slightly different angle on this. The problem isn't so much that we've been pooh-poohing normie white-collar jobs (the world never needed too many mediocre lawyers or accountants, and needs fewer every year as technology advances); it's that we have, on the one hand, been pooh-poohing the trades, while on the other hand we've been coddling the little eliteliings in school, telling them they're "writers" or "mathematicians" or "artists" when all they are is children beginning to learn. They're still children at 20, but having been told for a decade and a half that they have something special and unique to offer the world, they believe it. In very few cases is it the truth, and in most cases they, and we, would be better off if they learned to operate a crane or wire a house.
I think a lot of the dissatisfaction has to do with the visibility of success. There have always been lavish photo spreads of successful musicians, politicians, and professionally wealthy heirs and heiresses, but now there are millions of iterations on that theme, with new content to reinforce it minute by minute. Just living in a regular apartment in Manhattan (or Brooklyn) and doing work was enough of a success story 20 years ago. Now, unless you're showcasing your constant travel, fancy meals, and impeccable style you are some sort of slovenly underachiever. Even people who work all the time can feel like they're not doing enough when compared to the most sociopathic striver on Instagram.
I'm beginning to think that ignorance is indeed bliss, at least ignorance of all the contours and details of lives that appear to be "better" than your own. And then at the end we all croak and can no longer compare anything to anything, which seems to have been forgotten in our era of octogenarian business leaders and politicians.
The author has confused elite class with the chattering class that surrounds him in Brooklyn, NYC, NY. Brooklyn, NY, is no more or less representative of life in the USA than Bangor, ME, Chicago, IL, or Boise, ID.
I am inclined to agree with the author's thesis. AI is going to make this worse. A lot worse.