THE QUESTION
Why is a secure standard of living harder to reach than a generation ago?
Group cards you judge alike. Groups organise reading; they decide nothing.
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Clusters form from similarity, names come last
Canonical order: link pairs of ideas you judge similar — links are symmetric (A~B is B~A; direction never matters) and a tie holds once 2 members make it.
why
Links are symmetric — A~B is B~A. Clusters are the groups that emerge from held ties, and only a formed cluster can be named, by a person. Your own links carry a ✕ to withdraw; you cannot remove someone else's. Clusters organise the wall and never gate the vote — two cards making the same CLAIM are a merge back in Clarify.
Links and names are made while Cluster is live; the steward’s ← reopens it.
unnamed cluster — name it if the group has a common thread, or leave it unnamed (2)
What used to be a job is now a series of contracts
~ The things that used … · helddiscuss
The things that used to be bought once are now rented forever
~ What used to be a job… · helddiscuss
unnamed cluster — name it if the group has a common thread, or leave it unnamed (2)
Inheritance now decides more outcomes than income does
~ The tax system taxes … · heldin focus ↑ · close ✕
The tax system taxes the wage more than the asset
~ Inheritance now decid… · helddiscuss
unnamed cluster — name it if the group has a common thread, or leave it unnamed (2)
Anyone without them was priced out of ever holding them
~ Nobody has ever added… · held~ Anyone holding assets… · held~ Assets rose faster th… · helddiscuss
Anyone holding assets in 2009 has done well without deciding anything
~ Anyone without them w… · helddiscuss
· not yet clustered (31)
The statistics say the median is fine and the median household disagrees
A household absorbs shocks that used to be absorbed by an institution
Productivity rose and pay stopped following it
Union membership fell and with it the wage floor for everyone
The measured rate of inflation is not the rate a young family faces
Public services filled part of the gap and were then cut
Bargaining power moved from labour to capital gradually and completely
A single wage no longer supports a household
Competition policy stopped worrying about labour markets
Credentials inflated because everyone responded to the same signal
Assets rose faster than wages for four decades
Two incomes became necessary and childcare ate the second
The cost of the essentials rose faster than the basket used to measure inflation
~ Assets rose faster th… · helddiscuss
Three employers in a town is not a market for workers
Everything that got cheaper is optional and everything essential got dearer
Everything the state stopped doing became a household expense
A firm can move production and a worker cannot move country
Cheap credit substituted for wages for twenty years
Debt made the fall invisible until it was not
Nobody has ever added up what was transferred to households
Housing, childcare and health are counted like televisions
Degrees became the entry ticket and the debt came with them
Training is an employer cost, so nobody trains anyone
Interest rates were held low for a decade and asset prices did what follows
Non-compete clauses reach people who earn very little
Classification as self-employed removes protections without removing dependence
The share of output going to wages fell and nobody decided it
Risk was transferred to households and called flexibility
~ Nobody has ever added… · helddiscuss
Employment law was written for a job that no longer exists
Pensions moved from a promise by an employer to a bet by an employee
A skill has a shorter life than a career