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The Death of the Middle-Class Musician

(thewalrus.ca)
300 points pseudolus | 1 comments | 28 Jun 25 22:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.203s | source
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mft_ ◴[29 Jun 25 13:14 UTC] No.44412893[source]▶
Time and time again, stories on totally different topics hinge on: during or just after the pandemic, there was a major change in cost of doing just about everything. Now of course, the pandemic was A. Big. Thing. and there was also an overlaid global supply-chain disruption when the Ever Given blocked the Suez Canal in '21.

But: fundamentally, why did all of this happen, and why haven't prices normalised (i.e. dropped) since?

Does anyone have a hypothesis, beyond 'corporate gouging', which I can accept, but seems too simplistic to explain what seems to be an enduring global phenomenon?

replies(2): >>44412916 #>>44412950 #
1. 3PS ◴[29 Jun 25 13:22 UTC] No.44412950[source]▶
For prices specifically I think it's fair to say that inflation only goes in one direction, but for larger market trends, IMO the key here is _habit building_.

Many things were technically feasible pre-pandemic but not done habitually: remote work, streaming movies instead of going to the theater, ordering delivery instead of dining out, and so on. The pandemic forced many people to change their habits and get over any initial inertia (e.g. investing in a WFH setup or home theater). The result is that when the world returned to normal, the markets didn't: consumer habits had already moved on.