The Two Parent Privilege by Melissa Kearney FTP: America Has Become A Two Class Country

Two Parent Privilege is the ninth book for my American Decline series. I’d say all but two books have emphasized income inequality. Going into this series, I thought income inequality was a myth. And in the manner I considered it, it is. But I was thinking about it wrong. I was thinking of income inequality as a “pay gap” between genders and races. Pay gaps exist in places, but they are rather narrow. My mistake, I was observing my world and the world I grew up in: the broad elite. I was thinking of the pay gap between two college grads -- man and woman -- not outside of that parameter. Seven books of this series, and especially Kearney, have shown me a true and concerning income inequality.

That inequality isn’t some diversity thing, it results from the divergence of two classes since 1960, and especially since 1990. America has diverged into a large upper class, the broad elites to narrow elites at the top, and into a lower class. That lower class is being priced out, and regulated out of what would be considered, The American Dream.

When I’ve mentioned this on X, the money Twitter crowd comes racing in saying it’s the younger generation’s lack of work ethic, and them growing up on daddy’s money, getting participation trophies, and some generic slam to Onlyfans girls or girl influencers being too entitled and too promiscuous to be of any value. Unless you’re part of the Greatest Generation, bitching about the younger generation's lack of work ethic signals a profound and impressive ignorance of the modern economy.

Money Twitter’s ire directs itself at the youth of the broad elite. The broad elite are anxious, depressed, and nihilistic. That does not bode well for our future. But what money Twitter also misses in its complaints, and in fact what many people miss, and miss wholly, the men and women of the lower classes. Each faces excruciating issues. Men who don’t go to college are checking out, as opportunities become rarer for them. They’re even checking out on dating. And the women of this generation, many of them end up single mothers, and single mothers face a host of issues. A big issue, the children of single mothers are more likely to not go to college, are more likely to stay poor, and are more likely to have emotional issues and have more transgressions.