[Tax-chick]

I think you gentlemen have the dates wrong. Nicholas Kristof, the co-author, was born in 1959, and he was in the same grade as as the funny-named Knapp brother with the Mustang, which must have been 1975-76.

This is one reason I’m having difficulty seeing the relevance of economic trends or tropes of the last thirty years: because the key events occurred much longer ago than that.

The key events of the 1970s were not modern investment capitalism or the mass incorporation of Mexicans into the U.S. economy and entitlement structure. H1-B tech guys from India and Pakistan weren’t even dreamed of.

The counterculture revolution and the coincident (causes and effects not entirely clear) Vietnam War were the critical events when the Knapp family was misplacing its father, not graduating from high school, taking up drug dealing, and all the rest. IN THE 1970s.

[grey_whiskers]

For this particular family, I take your point.

I agree, thank you for pointing it out.

However, for the "general case" of *Deplorables* ("bitterly clinging to their guns & religion" as 0moeba said)...

Dislocation/displacement was the intention all along.

[Swordmaker]

I think you gentlemen have the dates wrong. Nicholas Kristof, the co-author, was born in 1959, and he was in the same grade as as the funny-named Knapp brother with the Mustang, which must have been 1975-76.

Then the crash would have been the hyper inflation of the late 70s. . . with similar impacts on the building trades.