My father has exactly the same attitude. You have perfectly explained it!

Hey, I'm not THAT old. Also, I know a lot about Louis IV. His money wasn't new.

Agreed. I would argue that "flaunting" was way, way more subdued back in the day. Most of my life has been lived NOT in the new gilded age. What I mean is that people certainly enjoyed living large 30 or 40 years ago and were not judged excessively unless it was crazy over the top crassness.

My husband and I looked into a tiny house as a second home. It would have cost way more than $16,000. With everything involved, putting up a house in a little, inexpensive mountain hamlet with few building codes would have cost us $159,000 for a tiny house made with really nice materials.

"Simplifying" and frugality were huge in the '90s. But these trends tend to be choices that are done by people who can afford choices, as you've pretty much pointed out.

Are these people who actually go on to graduate? Because giant percentages of engineering students where I teach wash out. Same with nursing.

Absolutely. I started out in journalism. Almost no one had a journalism degree. Editors never cared. It's was all about your clips back them.

My husband runs a very large plant. Hundreds of people report to him, and STEM jobs are certainly his to offer. He often notes two things:

Racism is indeed ugly, and I did not know that about Freeman. But Cumberbatch is no moral superstar. I guess they are both pretty bad.

You know, I was just goofing, but the reek of condescension in your reply makes me think I was right, after all.

I loved those books.

I may have overstated the case in both directions. Except Rupert Graves.

So... those of us who think he's icky don't think all that well?

He is physically repellent. Martin Freeman on the other hand, yum. And Rupert Graves is divine.

My kid is glamorous and successful (but she bought her own home). She has met people far more influential than the ones you named. (People with insane levels of power across the globe.)

I lost fifty pounds and kept it off. I am a health superstar. I eat cheese.

I am really jealous that you got to see Todd Rundgren speak at your school. He is grossly underrated and unfairly ignored as an artist.

His relationship with what constituted France at that time was pretty complicated.

Wasn't he actually Corsican?

I can't believe I forgot that one. The MTM sing is the BEST. The Monkees also had an awesome theme.