Something I think we don’t talk about too much that has additionally fallen to the throes of Late Stage Capitalism is the dissolution of nuclear and extended families, as well as the normalcy of shared households.
Before, the everyday tasks of any one domicile could be reasonably expected to be split up amongst its cohorts. Kids do their chores, dad mows the lawn, mom does the wash, nana does the cooking, auntie takes the kids to school/shopping, or your housemates help out, etc etc.
But most of this generation is living in isolated pods, single-serving everything. You are solely responsible for the cooking, cleaning, washing, shopping, studying, working, running to the bank, filing taxes, trip planning, car maintenance, home repairs, and your godddamn mental health. Of course it’s too much work for just one person, but it’s become so normalized by now that people hardly even notice there’s a problem, much less any viable solution to it. Instead, we all resign ourselves to being “tired all the time”, physically and emotionally, and not knowing why.
And not to go down the conspiracy rabbit hole - I think this is more of a blind “race to the bottom” scenario - but it makes a lot more money for the rent-seeking class when we’re socially isolated. A couple shares a house/apartment, shares chores, may even be able to share a car. When they break up, that’s now 2 apartments, 2 cars, individual trips for everything, etc.
It’s not quite that clean of course, and plenty of folks live with roommates. But there’s definitely a perverse economic incentive to keep us detached from community and partnership, and everything from AI/social media/online dating to the gender/culture wars seems to be pushing us farther in that direction.
Something I think we don’t talk about too much that has additionally fallen to the throes of Late Stage Capitalism is the dissolution of nuclear and extended families, as well as the normalcy of shared households.
Before, the everyday tasks of any one domicile could be reasonably expected to be split up amongst its cohorts. Kids do their chores, dad mows the lawn, mom does the wash, nana does the cooking, auntie takes the kids to school/shopping, or your housemates help out, etc etc.
But most of this generation is living in isolated pods, single-serving everything. You are solely responsible for the cooking, cleaning, washing, shopping, studying, working, running to the bank, filing taxes, trip planning, car maintenance, home repairs, and your godddamn mental health. Of course it’s too much work for just one person, but it’s become so normalized by now that people hardly even notice there’s a problem, much less any viable solution to it. Instead, we all resign ourselves to being “tired all the time”, physically and emotionally, and not knowing why.
And not to go down the conspiracy rabbit hole - I think this is more of a blind “race to the bottom” scenario - but it makes a lot more money for the rent-seeking class when we’re socially isolated. A couple shares a house/apartment, shares chores, may even be able to share a car. When they break up, that’s now 2 apartments, 2 cars, individual trips for everything, etc.
It’s not quite that clean of course, and plenty of folks live with roommates. But there’s definitely a perverse economic incentive to keep us detached from community and partnership, and everything from AI/social media/online dating to the gender/culture wars seems to be pushing us farther in that direction.