Maybe we were too harsh on Gen-Z analysts/associates

Exactly. Gender quotas in hiring and promotions have deteriorated the quality of juniors but who will knock some sense into these bank-CFOs, some of whom have committed to these 50% female targets in their IR materials.

Nothing I hate more than a Europoor who feels obligated to give Americans their political opinions. You get your news about us filtered through BBC and your entire country/continent is shit. Maybe fix your own problems before weighing in  on the one country that has consistently made progress for the last 100 years.

when you have an entire K-12 plus college school system that yells at boys that they are evil, they are doing "toxic masculinity" for not acting like women

Which education system were you in?

Agreed with all of this. A lot of the voting 18-22 year olds now were in their early teens during Trump's first term. No doubt his charisma had an early affect on them versus the "toxic masculinity" bs pushed by the left.

Why do you assume that? I absolutely abhor gender quotas and any form of DEI.

People cry about both real and perceived gender discrimination on this forum all the time, what are you talking about? This weak straw man instantly segues into crying about white people. Strange comment all around.

Ironically, it just vindicates everything he posted. This social dynamic wouldn’t exist front and centre in peoples’ minds in the first place without those same top-down imposed demographic changes.

Honestly, this take misses a ton of nuance, and most of these “issues” you’re pointing to are either overblown or misinterpreted. First off, the idea that immigration is “out of control” and wrecking society just doesn’t hold up. In the U.S., the foreign-born population went from 7.9% in 1990 to about 13.7% in 2019. Sure, it’s a shift, but it’s hardly an apocalypse. With native birth rates tanking, we actually need immigration to keep the population steady and support an aging workforce. And the whole “immigration causes crime” narrative? That’s outdated and just wrong. Data shows immigrants, including undocumented ones, are statistically less likely to commit crimes than native-born citizens. In Texas, for example, undocumented immigrants have half the crime rate of native-born Americans. These aren’t hidden stats; it’s publicly available data from multiple sources.

Obviously, a three-paragraph post on WSO will not capture all the nuance of issues that have slowly arisen over decades. I do credit your post with making some good points, but I don’t agree with all of them.

For immigration, an 8 to 14% increase in the foreign-born population is a 75% increase in three decades, which is significant. Since the 1970s (when it was at 5%), it's a 200% increase. You also conveniently point out 2019, which was before the start of the Biden administration. Approximately 7 million+ illegal migrants have crossed into the U.S. in that time (not including legal migration, which is obviously less problematic but still increases this figure). The idea that there hasn’t been a sharp acceleration in immigration is untrue, and the current estimate is 16% (so doubling in three decades, tripling in five—that is a significant shift).

In any case, a certain dose of legal immigration is healthy to attract talent and to fill gaps in the labor force, provided you can integrate these people. (The U.S. is quite good at this compared to European countries—some of the broad trends I mentioned were more applicable to Western countries as a whole, where you can see a shift to the right among younger populations, but I can concentrate on the U.S. given the context of the post.)

I think the crux of the issue for the U.S. is illegal immigration, and a porous border has led to several issues. The porous border has contributed to the fentanyl crisis in the U.S., has led to human trafficking, and has led to more violence in border towns. (Even if migrants allegedly cause less crime, the presence of organized crime on a weak border leads to more crime.) This influx also strains social services, with increased needs for shelters, healthcare services (especially emergency services), food and financial assistance programs, rising enrollments in schools, etc., which come at the expense of many Americans who feel left behind and doesn’t help the deficit and government debt loads. (Yes, you will say it's multifactorial, which it is, but these issues don’t help.)

High immigration (legal or illegal) has also put strong wage pressure on many less-educated or lower-paid Americans, leading to brewing frustration among large segments of the U.S. population who feel their ability to earn a decent living isn’t being protected - this is very important in explaining Trump's election

In terms of birth rates, I’ll disagree with you. You shouldn’t outsource your native population’s birth rate and reproduction to immigrants. That is perhaps a more philosophical discussion, but native populations need to be encouraged to have children themselves, or they will see their civilization and culture disappear. Again, there must be good policy to encourage this, but this issue plagues many Western countries, and I think the solution of just letting more people in because native populations have become too individualistic or selfish to reproduce is absurd. (I disagree vehemently with any theory about the cost of living being too high. Your quality of life, access to technology, healthcare, and overall material comfort nowadays is exponentially better than that of your ancestors 50, 100, 200, or 300 years ago, who reproduced nonetheless. How did cavemen raise families?) You are right, though, that we need more young people to counteract aging populations, but the “how” I disagree with.

The gripe about globalization hollowing out the middle class? Globalization is a mixed bag, no doubt. Yes, some jobs moved overseas, but let’s not ignore the massive benefits: lower prices on goods, economic growth, and lifting millions out of poverty worldwide. The World Bank has extensive data showing that globalization, while imperfect, has had undeniable global benefits. Real estate prices in cities are rising for reasons far more complex than just globalization; it’s tied to local zoning laws, demand, and a housing market that hasn’t kept up with population growth. Blaming globalization for high housing costs misses the mark.

I do not ignore the benefits of globalization; I mention that it has many merits in my post. It has been very important for the improved living standards of billions of people worldwide. However, it also explains why people voted for Trump. In the U.S., globalization has had its winners (the coasts) and losers (most of middle America) and has distributed wealth very unequally. The manufacturing and low-skilled jobs have been hit hard through delocalization or strong wage pressure, and in Western countries in general, you can see a trend of de-globalization, with populations asking for protectionist policies. Even the Democrats implicitly agree with this; Biden did nothing to remove tariffs (even increased some), and the subsidies and credits he gave in the Inflation Reduction Act are extensions of this ethos of national priority. The difference with Biden is that Trump owns it more in his rhetoric and promises to dial it up a notch (I agree it won't be good if he takes it too far).

I also agree with your point about real estate price growth being multifactorial. Zoning laws especially have been a major factor (good since Trump advocates for less regulation, less bureaucracy, and less administration, maybe he can make an impact here). But in certain major real estate markets that attract qualified young professionals (NYC, SF, LA, etc.), high foreign demand has had a notable impact. And then these same people will complain that they can't have kids because housing is too expensive.

As for polarization and social tension, this idea that it’s caused by “left-wing nut jobs” or permissive policies doesn’t reflect reality. Studies from the National Bureau of Economic Research make it clear that economic issues like stagnant wages and job displacement are major contributors to polarization. Social media’s relentless outrage cycle only fuels it. And declining birth rates and marriage rates? Those trends are everywhere in the developed world and are driven more by economics and lifestyle shifts than by any permissive policies. People are simply making different choices, and that’s happening worldwide.

Interesting, so your studies acknowledge that stagnant wages and job displacement are major pain points and contributors to polarization, supporting my above points that immigration and globalization have contributed to discontent among large swathes of the U.S. population.

However, I will also disagree with you that woke ideologies or even the post-1960s growth of individualism, post-modernism and rejection of traditional values haven't had negative societal impacts. These ideologies have captured many pivotal opinion-shaping institutions and systems (academia, media, middle management bureaucracy in the corporate world via HR, for instance) and have brainwashed many people in the younger generations into rejecting traditional values (that helped shape Western civilizations over millennia, but were dismissed as parochial and oppressive burdens by the baby boomer generation who had the luxury of naively believing that in a thriving and comfortable post WW2 era) and into viewing themselves according to group identities, alienating people from each other. Why do you think these hot-button topics are constantly discussed on campuses and in the media if people don't care about them? They get clicks and views because people do. The whole angle of attack around Trump and his voters was to call them racists, fascists, misogynists etc. and playing on the huge amount of ideological polarization in this country. The democrat party is shooting itself in the foot by not detaching itself from the woke movement and I anticipate it won't win elections until it does. We should have honest conversations about social and minority rights but the woke movement just toxifies everything and makes dialogue impossible.

And yes, you're right that most of the developed world is seeing the trend of lower birth and marriage rates, but that doesn’t justify it. You say "lifestyle shifts" have contributed to this issue. Yes, more emphasis on materialism and individualism, and more coddled mindsets versus emphasis on making personal sacrifices to raise families and contribute to one's community and nation. This is a deep decay in the Western psyche that is leading to serious issues—not just declining birth rates, and older populations but also civilizations and cultures that are at risk of being replaced and disappearing. It's a tragedy that posterity won't forgive our generation for. And again, the argument of economics for me is untenable. Our living standards are the best humanity has seen and are good enough for us to have kids (you know that thing humanity has done for hundreds of millions of years apparently)

Reports show the average is about $352 per night per room, which is $2,464 per week, not $4,000

Pointing out that the taxpayer pays $2,464 per week instead of $4,000 per week to house illegal immigrants in one of the most expensive cities in the US is such a weak point lmao.

I didn't even pay close to $2,464 for a week-long networking trip when I came to NY! And needless to say, the taxpayer didn't cover my trip expenses or put me up in a $350-per-night hotel room.

Interesting history thanks. 

I generally would assume a lot of the "woke" stuff is supposed to encapsulate the pronouns, LGBT, toxic masculinity stuff in some sort of combination these days rather than carrying anti-black sentiment (I don't know).

I'm just trying to piece together what conservatives and the Right refer to as woke now. It'll vary from person to person but there's got to be some common ground given a lot of their gripes with the Left is that they're pandering woke strategies. Where's the line for most people? Don't like mixed bathrooms? The pronoun/gender stuff? Gay marriage? Feminism? Stuff like that.

What I suspect is happening is that the Left assumes most of the Right is against a lot more of this type of stuff than they actually are, which leads to fear-mongering etc. And then vice versa.