I'd go with off-shoring labor and the erosion of medical benefits myself.
Agreed. Also, self-destructive ways of coping with feelings of disenfranchisement, loss of faith in the promise of a better personal future, being trapped in various kinds of loan schemes and plain old dissonance between individual perceptions/cognition and reality as manufactured medially.
Yep. Don't have much to add, but I see a real decline in optimism about the future. Even here in economically blasted Appalachia where you might figure folks are used to this sort of thing. Political ads are more rabid than ever to resonate with that sort of dissatisfaction. "Who can be blamed? Immigrants, minorities, slackers, socialists?"
Beatles, Byrds, Beach Boys, Dylan, Rolling Stones, Who, Zep, etc While I can cop to owning some Beatles, some Stones and some Led Zeppelin, I can also say that I own it purely because my daughter is a fan. Beatles and Cranes. Those are her faves.
I believe the thought process goes something like this. 'Hey I have a little in savings so I'm protected if things go bad.' 'Oh shit, diagnosis that means lots of expensive care or I die.' 'Oh shit, turns out that even with expensive care, I die eventually anyway, but I die broke' 'I want to leave something for my kids/grandkids/spouse, no way in hell am I destroying whatever nest-egg I have for a few more years of life' keels overerosion of medical benefits