I think the middle class is getting squeezed like a grape, and I think "automation" is an easier bogeyman to point to than "elitist economic policy and a fundamental societal structure that defaults to feudalism unless carefully tended."

Less flippantly, I think fundamental value theory points to the overvaluation of FAANG stocks. I think castle in the air theory says that if you can sell it for X, its value is X. And I think everyone trying to retire, save for college, pay for a pension, you name it, gives two fucks about theory. They see FAANG going up and they know that they need to beat 1%. So if they're gonna beat 1% by following the other lemmings off the cliff, they'll do it. After all, the money's good and if they all lose their shirts together, nobody's to blame. I keenly remember listening to people commiserate over their dotcom craters in 2000. they weren't retiring for another 20 years so it was an abstraction... an abstraction they could have in common.

I do think that we'll remember things like "retirement" and "the middle class" fondly when I'm in my '80s. And by "we" I mean "America" and by "America" I mean "everyone who didn't manage to grab the top rung before it was out of reach." The "go big or go home" window is closing for most Americans and I think they sense it subconsciously even if they don't grasp it intellectually.