Th concentration of wealth in the hands of a few has never been greater than today, with it getting increasingly narrow, while the corporations that collect that wealth are becoming increasingly efficient at it. There is less trickledown than there has been in the past, less gaps in the system, less opportunity...
I think those Never and In The Past parts would be quite relative. Last year, perhaps. Or twenty years ago in the West. Maybe there was even more opportunity 150 years ago in California, along with the misery, and for those not slaves.
Hey, 150 years ago my nation was still enslaved, too (and that had lasted for almost 5 centuries). Then 70 or so years ago successful industrialists and entrepreneurs were stripped off all wealth, some killed or jailed in camps. Because they had dared become successful and pay others to work before the state decided that was the state's business only. Owning and paying others, relocating, etc. 30 Years ago you still had no right to get out of the country unless for some state-approved participation in sports or cultural events of the not degrading type. About 15 years ago you were still not permitted to work without a special visa or citizenship in Central or Western Europe if you came from the Eastern parts of it.
Back in the glorious days, Vincent van Gogh lived and died in misery. I am not saying he would have been successful on Web 2.0 pr Web 3.0 platforms but millions of artists have more opportunity still.
And, well, I am hugely grateful for discovering Web 3.0 in its infancy and I am sticking to it as the best opportunity I've found so far. Not the best job yet, but the best opportunity I currently use. Even if it comes to learning. And I agree that Web 2.0 has been ever in decline for me for more than five years now.
The thing is the majority of the people one would expect to be the active core of community are mostly keyboard active and still comfortable enough to not bother openly about the future since there's still entertainment easily available and famine is knocking on the doors of people far away. In fact, we don't hear those knocks anymore since there's tremendous noise everywhere.
But they will come closer and things will change. New waves of people will join the tired old waves of people who have been marching in protest somewhere downtown for most of the summer.
The problem will be who rides those waves and do they ride them to fight imaginary external enemies (attached to non-imaginary carriers of the human variety nonetheless).