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PaperclipPerfector  3d ago (text post)   2287 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for March 8, 2026

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I wonder how much of this is driven by the fact that the U.S. has a lot of up/down mobility in the way many countries do not.

Although it's also sort of a meme in Japan that High School is the best time of your life, which informs much of anime, gaming.

I doubt it's only rednecks and working-class kids who get written off as having peaked in high school, if that's what you're referring to. I think it's entirely plausible for some midwit and otherwise unremarkable guy to come from a comfortable middle-class suburban household and suffer the same fate.

All levels in the US are able to move up and down more than you see in say, Europe.

Class not really being a thing here is part of that.

Rich kid at a rich school with rich friends doing fancy things and then ends up with a boring office job while all their friends end up in NYC finance is a thing that happens, for instance.

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