If young people, even ones with good jobs, are priced out of real opportunities which the previous generations enjoyed, where’s the incentive? That’s the real problem. The US had a convincing argument in effects for a generation after WWII which built up and elevated the middle class, and which created loyalty towards that system and a feeling of agency & support which trended Americans towards protecting that system.
However, that’s not the case anymore. Increasingly, Americans are dissatisfied, perceive opportunities closing, and are no longer trending to the right as they get older particularly as you go down the generational line up.
Viewing this as just a matter of miseducation is ultimately an abdication, and when this had come up before, people said, to some extent correctly in structure, that real life experience would ultimately inform and shape those outlooks. Well, that is exactly what is happening - ideology is meeting the road of material reality. Republicans need to wise up and realize that policies which have gutted manufacturing, taken up by big business and corporate fat-cats & pols bought and paid for by the same cabals, and restrictive building covenants & other structures which have had the effect of enriching those who had already bought into the property markets (by constraining building where economic activity occurs), and more have been ruinous and hollowed out the pathway to economic security and political security. Republicans and Democrats, to different extents in different issues, have both contributed to this problem, but just finger pointing at the other side also doesn’t mean doing the work of casting aside those policies.
If they don’t, then the current incentive structure will continue to inform people’s outlooks and expectations, and the kinds of policies they feel most urgently address the issues. Then where does that leave us? Probably in a worse place than folks losing value on their houses, having noisy manufacturing near them, or the other outcomes of effecting change in these policies.
“restrictive building covenants”
They exist for a reason. Prior to the 1920s, neighborhoods got trashed every time there was a major economic downturn.
You couldn’t get a mortgage for more than 50% of value before zoning came along.
“policies which have gutted manufacturing”
As I just replied to another post. The recent increases to my former machining and fab business took my operating costs to about $70k per year just to stay in business. In the past two years that was triple what I was paying. It is like that every where now. Rent, insurance, taxes, and regulations killed my business. Even the software schemes now are tens of thousands a year.