Thread by @Noahpinion

Howdy, folks! Today's @bopinion post is about the economic lessons of my favorite TV show, "Atlanta"!

bloomberg.com/view/articles/…

The city of Atlanta is a thriving, growing metropolis, and is known for being a mecca for talented black Americans.

BUT, "Atlanta" is about the working class that's left behind.

Alfred (Paper Boi), my favorite character, is a blue-collar working-class everyman. But with good jobs gone, selling drugs and trying to break into the music businesses is his best shot at a middle-class life.

A tragedy of deindustrialization (and racial discrimination).

Suburban sprawl and poor transit have stranded lots of working-class Americans far from the dense city centers and richer neighborhoods where the new service jobs are to be found.

For black Americans, de facto racial segregation often makes this problem much worse.

Poverty brings a host of economic problems with it. Transaction costs are a big one.

Poor people don't just live more modest versions of rich people's lives. They are constantly harried by stuff other people don't have to deal with.

Risk and liquidity constraints are another issue. Operating on the edge of bankruptcy, in a world filled with risks, dramatically alters the shape of a person's life, and the opportunities available to them.

And police racism and the War on Drugs make it much worse!

"Atlanta" is just a TV show, of course, but real research broadly supports this characterization of poverty in America.

It's fun to watch TV shows like "Atlanta" (and especially when they're so amazingly well-made), but back in the real world, we need to be doing things to help the people who are in those sorts of situations.

Here are some ideas for how to start doing that.

(end)