this post was submitted on 20 May 2025
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214
What the Comfort Class Doesn’t Get - People with generational wealth control a society that they don’t understand. (www.theatlantic.com)
submitted 2 weeks ago by technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/politics@lemmy.world
18 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

... I have one of those wearable devices that monitors my heart rate, sleep quality, activity level, and calories burned. Mine is called an Oura ring, and at the end of the day, it told me what I already knew: I had been “unusually stressed.” When this happens, the device asks you to log the source of your stress. I scrolled through the wide array of options—diarrhea, difficulty concentrating, erectile dysfunction, emergency contraceptives. I could not find “financial issues,” or anything remotely related to money, listed.

According to a poll from the American Psychiatric Association, financial issues are the No. 1 cause of anxiety for Americans: 58 percent say they are very or somewhat anxious about money. How, I wondered, was it possible that this had not occurred to a single engineer at Oura?

For all of the racial, gender, and sexual reckonings that America has undergone over the past decade, we have yet to confront the persistent blindness and stigma around class. When people struggle to understand the backlash against elite universities, or the Democrats’ loss of working-class voters, or the fact that more and more Americans are turning away from mainstream media, this is why...

Archive: https://archive.is/r42Ba

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[–] givesomefucks@lemmy.world 47 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

I had my annual at the VA a while ago, they asked if I was stressed and I said yeah, but that was normal given the circumstances...

We're nearing the point where this shit is the norm, and that's incredibly dangerous for a society and the people living in it.

Crashing out is going to stop being the exception, hell, you could argue all the white 20 somethings that voted for trump are actively crashing out.

They don't understand the problem, let alone capable of finding real solutions.

They just know shits fucked and that fucks with our risk assessment, that's "crashing out". Things no rational person would consider suddenly sounds like valid plans. Because prolonged stress shortens how far in the future we plan.

[–] Kyle_The_G@lemmy.world 33 points 2 weeks ago (2 children)

Theres a pretty strong link between financial health and mental/physical well-being

[–] TomMasz@lemmy.world 23 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Wealth is often overlooked in medical studies. I saw something recently about drinking champagne being linked to fewer heart attacks. But is it because of the wine, some genetic thing, or simply because people who regularly drink champagne tend to be well off and can afford better health care?

[–] tmyakal@lemm.ee 27 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

The old joke about the French diet: they just drink wine, eat baguettes, and smoke cigarettes, but all Frenchmen seem to live to 100.

Turns out having fairer labor laws and access to healthcare does a great job of prolonging your life!

[–] Kyle_The_G@lemmy.world 10 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

ahh the french paradox! Lots of wine, fatty food and super low heart disease!

[–] twice_hatch@midwest.social 1 points 2 weeks ago

squints

There is a California lifestyle. Inspired, by that same French paradox

[–] gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 2 weeks ago

Note that what matters seems to be (at least to me) not so much wealth but stability.

If there is a social safety net that provides for you in cases of need, that reduces the worries a lot.

[–] Auntievenim@lemmy.world 24 points 2 weeks ago (1 children)

Wow the Atlantic posting an article about class politics in which the class being questioned isn't the working class

Something very bad is coming

[–] RedPostItNote@lemmy.world 14 points 2 weeks ago

Or very good, depending on how you see things.

[–] sp3ctr4l@lemmy.dbzer0.com 15 points 2 weeks ago* (last edited 2 weeks ago)

My therapist recently in her visit notes, put in "scare quotes" that my fears of potentially losing my SSDI (I am currently going through a semi regular, every 5-7 years review) are "rational and justfified".

She called me the next day to suggest I try to apply to Medicaid.

Not only am I already on Medicare, which I explained to her, and I have tried to qualify for both simultaneously, and failed multiple times... which I also explained to her.... not only she would know this already if she had any useful experience with clients on Medicare/Medicaid...

She suggested this to me on the literal same day that the Big Beautiful Bill was getting massive media coverage for being set to cut Medicaid by what, 2/3rds of its funding gone?

I don't class my therapist as some kind of oligarchichal technocrat, but uh yeah it would be nice to not be gaslit by my apparently utterly detached from reality therapist, whom I literally have to pay money to see so that Social Security believes I am still disabled.

Wonderful nonsense system we have here.

[–] tomkatt@lemmy.world 13 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

What on earth is the “comfort class?”

[–] can@sh.itjust.works 24 points 2 weeks ago

America is not just suffering from a wealth gap; America has the equivalent of a class apartheid. Our systems—of education, credentialing, hiring, housing, and electing officials—are dominated and managed by members of a “comfort class.” These are people who were born into lives of financial stability. They graduate from college with little to no debt, which enables them to advance in influential but relatively low-wage fields—academia, media, government, or policy work. Many of them rarely interact or engage in a meaningful way with people living in different socioeconomic strata than their own. And their disconnect from the lives of the majority has expanded to such a chasm that their perspective—and authority—may no longer be relevant.

[–] Plebcouncilman@sh.itjust.works 8 points 2 weeks ago

Petty bourgeoisie

[–] mrwrinkles@lemm.ee 4 points 2 weeks ago

I heard a lady say once, "Comin' from money 'n goin' to money"

[–] match@pawb.social 0 points 2 weeks ago

currently it's anyone with more than 3 digits in their savings accounts

[–] HubertManne@piefed.social 9 points 2 weeks ago

Yeah I feel 90% of my stress throughout life has been financial related and continues to be so.

[–] Rookwood@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 2 weeks ago

The comfort class is going extinct. Even the people in these professional roles are going to start feeling the heat. We're almost to the point where if you aren't a doctor or lawyer, financial stress is going to be a part of your every day life.

[–] MummysLittleBloodSlut@lemmy.blahaj.zone -1 points 1 week ago

So that's why those people who complain about voting for Kamala Harris all day are like that!