Well, it is actually true that the economic prospects of commentators have dramatically worsened over the last decade.
But this is always true of some group, no matter how great things are going for everyone else. My grandfather almost lost his business in 1955 despite a generally swimming economy. Why? He owned a gas station on what had been the main highway until the interstate opened.
Some professions, notably journalism, are undergoing radical shrinkage, while others, like academia, are suffering from a supply glut that excludes most of those who hoped and expected to use their PhDs to teach and research. Folks in those professions aren't wrong to be upset.
Also, the college wage premium does not seem to be accruing to the incremental holder of a BA--more people are getting them, but the additional folks aren't getting the same wage boost, and additionally, are the most likely to have taken on significant debt.
These are all reasonable anxieties. The problem is that they find it hard to grasp, emotionally, that their misery is not necessarily shared by the rest of the country--and also that they are the primary people charged with telling us what the state of the country is.
Hence all the claims--not backed up by any data except their emotional feeling that it must be true--that everyone except a few rich people are taking on three jobs just to scrape by at a standard of living they could have enjoyed on one salary 40 years ago.
And why I got an astonishing torrent of rage from the internet for stating the clear truth that the economy is really doing pretty well. Because it is going well--but not for college educated workers struggling to live on marginal salaries in a mega-successful city.
