Someone Asks “What Was Loved By Poor People Until Rich People Ruined It?”, 14 People Don’t Hold Back

Article created by: Dominyka

According to findings by sociologist Matthew Desmond, which he presents in his new book, Poverty, by America, since 1979, the bottom 90% of income earners in the U.S. experienced annual earnings gains of just 24%, while the wages of the top 1% of earners more than doubled.

Looking at inflation-adjusted figures, ordinary workers have seen their pay tick up only 0.3% a year for several decades. So the real wages for many Americans today are roughly what they were 40 years ago.

Still, people have been trying their best to make use of what they have. And they do find ways to enjoy life. That is until the market changes things for them. There's a Reddit thread that asked the platform users, "What was loved by poor people until rich people ruined it?" and it quickly went viral, receiving an interesting archive of replies. Here are some of the most popular ones.

• Read More: Someone Asks “What Was Loved By Poor People Until Rich People Ruined It?”, 50 People Don’t Hold Back

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#14

Taking junky old cars and fixing them up as a hobby. Rich people discovered they could buy up loads of potentially very worthwhile project cars for not much, restore them to a level of unobtainable quality and price which drove the price up, now everyone "knows what they have" (eyeroll.png) and holds out for the big buyers instead of the neighbor down the street. They turned a hobby into a billion dollar industry and entertainment conglomerate so they can sell the cars to other rich people since few people can afford a $200,000 restored Mustang or GTO or whatever it is.

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#15

Muskoka. For decades it was just a collection of quaint little towns and families, and everyone had a cottage on one of the lakes. Then the rich found out about it and started arriving in droves, driving up prices and turning it into a playground for the ultra-wealthy.

Farmers markets. When I was a child, we were broke as a joke. The farmers market was where we went to get dirt cheap produce and whatnot. Now farmers markets are super expensive and filled with stalls from out of state farms selling aRtIsInAl cHeEseS aNd nOn-gMO hEiRlOoM tOmaToEs. Affordable housing. All types of what was traditionally "poor people food". Pork belly, oxtails, etc. All the things that use to be cheap because they were considered to be the trash parts. Now that people realize how delicious they can be its driven the price up. Cheap foods - donuts, cupcakes, hamburgers, wings - that have all been given the "foodie" treatment and went from good cheap eats to gourmet pricing without a corresponding increase in quality. Theater used to be the entertainment for the masses and now it's ridiculously expensive and inaccessible to most people. The planet. The outdoors. So many places used to be difficult to get to, required some level of toughness and grit just to see. More and more people argue that they are entitled to see these places without that, and they're flooding in, paving roads, cramming parking lots full, and trampling some of the most pristine, delicate, untouched areas of the world. I'm not trying to gatekeep these places, but nature sure was. Hawaii. Im Polynesian and rich people have pretty much made Hawaii thiers and im sick of it. Technically not poor people but all islanders. Football was working man's game. My Dad took me and my cousin to games every week home and away. This is beyond many now Sewing and sewing supplies. The new machines are plastic garbage and since its become a hobby rather than for the average person the patterns after the 70s use way too much fabric. Avocados have become so popular that the locals can no longer afford them. Vegan food. When it became a trend the label vegan made it 50% more expensive. There was a huge scandal in the late 2000s when it was reveal most pizza shops didn't use real cheese, because plant based was cheaper. Today vegan cheese 200% compared to normal cheese. Creating YouTube channels. KiloNation replied: The worst part of this is that they all use the same format. Vlogs, 50 different camera cuts in a span of two minutes, clickbait titles and thumbnails.