A lot of people (especially on Reddit and Lemmy too) don’t understand even the basics of economics. They see “luxury” and immediately make their judgement. “The rich”, “up there”, and “elite” are probably the most used words in comments. Not everything is immediately a conspiracy. Most of it is just basic economics. Plain and simple.
Well, unfortunately economics can still involve some level of conspiracy at times. And even basic economics can get quite complicated!
But I agree with you otherwise. Even though I am very critical of the existing economy and think it should be radically changed, I think you have to seek to understand and engage with economic data and research in order to build an informed critique. Obviously most people are not very economically literate but I find it especially annoying with those who are passionate about these topics. At a certain point that ignorance can only be sustained willingly.
I would love to see more informed economic discussion here, particularly on how left politics can be more economically rigorous. I think our ideals are sound, but how we achieve them needs to be informed by the real facts and not what we wish they were.
Yeah, ten years ago any apartment complex near campus that had undergone any renovations within the prior 15 years was being marketed as “luxury.”
Most of them were still cramped places with terrible materials and paper thin walls. The students living in them were frequently heavily dependent of financial aid or their parents had saved diligently for 20 yrs. There were some “elites,” but most of them were international students.
