{"id":84080,"date":"2022-12-15T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-12-15T17:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=84080"},"modified":"2022-12-15T07:25:54","modified_gmt":"2022-12-15T13:25:54","slug":"evolution-4","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=84080","title":{"rendered":"Evolution"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The headlines tell a heart-rending story:  new Florida congressman, heralded as the first &#8220;Gen-Z&#8221; member of Congress, can&#8217;t afford an apartment in DC.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">The first Gen Z Congress member was denied a D.C. apartment due to bad credit.<br><br>Freshman reps don\u2019t get a paycheck until February even though they start working on January 3rd.<br><br>Congress is inaccessible to those who don&#39;t have wealth.<br><br>It\u2019s designed to keep working people out.<\/p>&mdash; Robert Reich (@RBReich) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RBReich\/status\/1603163955815325696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">December 14, 2022<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>If an intellectual titan like Reich is yakking about it, it must be worth a look.  <a href=\"https:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/incoming-gen-z-congressman-cant-183656206.html?fr=yhssrp_catchall\">And, sure enough<\/a>&#8230;:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>When he&#8217;s sworn into office next month, Florida Democrat Maxwell Frost will become\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/theweek.com\/florida\/1018244\/democrat-maxwell-frost-becomes-1st-gen-z-member-of-congress\" target=\"_blank\">the first member of Generation Z to become a member of Congress in U.S. history<\/a>; an auspicious milestone for the 25-year-old and the House of Representatives at large. For now, though, the onetime progressive activist-turned-legislator has more immediate concerns on his mind \u2014 one shared by\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.insider.com\/gen-z-obsessed-with-apartment-hunting-videos-2022-10\" target=\"_blank\">millions of his generational peers<\/a>, as well:\u00a0<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/theweek.com\/articles\/900141\/americas-housing-crisis\" target=\"_blank\">finding an affordable place to live amidst skyrocketing house and rental prices<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>And I couldn&#8217;t help but think &#8211; the story seems familiar. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Sure enough &#8211; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2018\/11\/08\/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-cant-afford-to-rent-an-apartment-in-dc.html\">four years ago, Tide Pod Evita had the same exact sob story<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>One year ago, you could find&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2018\/06\/27\/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-could-be-youngest-woman-elected-to-congress.html\">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez<\/a>&nbsp;working behind the bar at Flats Fix, a small taqueria near Union Square. Come January, you will find her in Washington D.C., representing New York\u2019s 14th District as the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.cnbc.com\/2018\/11\/06\/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-is-now-the-youngest-woman-elected-to-congress.html\">youngest woman ever elected to Congress<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But just because she is making history, doesn\u2019t mean she is making money. Ocasio-Cortez recently revealed that she is currently unable to rent a D.C. apartment.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Of course, being in Congress has its perks &#8211; an upper middle class salary, connections, power.   AOC&#8217;s not exactly &#8220;the one percent&#8221; just yet, the <a href=\"https:\/\/legitnetworth.com\/aoc-net-worth\/\">movement is, uh, emphatically &#8220;up&#8221;<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<figure class=\"wp-block-table\"><table><tbody><tr><td><strong>Year<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>AOC Net Worth (estimated)<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>2019<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>Not Available<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>2020<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>$100,000<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>2021<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>$200,000<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><tr><td><strong>2022<\/strong><\/td><td><strong>$350,000<\/strong><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>She &#8211; and Frost, for that matter &#8211; appear to be on the track to cash out juuuust fine. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But I&#8217;m wondering &#8211; is this going to be a biennial tradition?   The media bemoaning some young, &#8220;progressive&#8221; pols brief brush with DC rental reality, on their (unstated) way to a sinecure, a federal pension, a &#8220;commentator&#8221; job at MSNBC, and connections that lead to millions of lifetime wealth? <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I think Mr. Frost&#8217;ll pull through somehow. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The headlines tell a heart-rending story: new Florida congressman, heralded as the first &#8220;Gen-Z&#8221; member of Congress, can&#8217;t afford an apartment in DC. If an intellectual titan like Reich is yakking about it, it must be worth a look. And, sure enough&#8230;: When he&#8217;s sworn into office next month, Florida Democrat Maxwell Frost will become\u00a0the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-84080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-democrats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=84080"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84080\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84085,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/84080\/revisions\/84085"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=84080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=84080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=84080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}