Assuming We're Typical
Recently there was a survey asking people how many Americans were working from home as the pandemic wore on. Interestingly enough, many respondents grossly overestimated the percentage.
When we take a closer look at the data, it turns out that many of these respondents are in fields where it is relatively easy to work from home. As a result, most of their social circle were also people who were working from home, and they had little contact with tradesmen and other groups of people whose work by its nature required one's physical presence where the work was to be done.
It made me think about Charles Murray's Coming Apart, in which the author showed how the upper and middle class have been steadily pulling in different directions over the last several decades, to the point that they have little or no social interaction outside of purely business contexts.
When we take a closer look at the data, it turns out that many of these respondents are in fields where it is relatively easy to work from home. As a result, most of their social circle were also people who were working from home, and they had little contact with tradesmen and other groups of people whose work by its nature required one's physical presence where the work was to be done.
It made me think about Charles Murray's Coming Apart, in which the author showed how the upper and middle class have been steadily pulling in different directions over the last several decades, to the point that they have little or no social interaction outside of purely business contexts.