korrents

korrents · piece

So It's Come to This: A Dylan Matthews Substack

Dylan Matthews · 5 Jan 2026

Read the piece on dylanmatthews.substack.com ↗

3 korrents from this piece ↓

Dylan Matthews did not write this page.

Every claim below was made in this piece, quoted word for word and numbered in the order the piece makes them, so you can read it there rather than take our word for it. The sentence above each quote is our reading of the claim, not their wording. Each quote was checked against a stored copy of the page at build time; where the two differ, the quote is the fact.

  1. Our reading

    Americans in the lowest income decile are living substantially better lives today than fifty years ago, even though relative economic standing still matters.

    Their wordsI think the evidence shows that Americans at the 10th percentile of income are living vastly better lives in 2025 than they did in 1975, and the absolute poverty trends reflect this, but relative economic standing within a community matters too.

  2. Our reading

    Sustained advocacy using effective strategies can grow safety-net programs and substantially improve outcomes for the people they serve.

    Their wordsIf you spend your whole life fighting to grow programs for the poor, and choose an effective set of strategies, the programs will, in fact, grow, and people will, in fact, benefit substantially.

  3. Our reading

    Major AI-driven economic disruption will require creating new kinds of social insurance and welfare programs to maintain living standards.

    Their wordsmaintaining living standards for the lower and middle-classes is going to require all kinds of new social insurance and welfare programs.

Keep reading