The middle class is alive and well (or at least ok) in flyover country.

Death of a Salesman's Dreams - Lee Siegel, New York Times

 

“Tickets for the original run, in 1949, cost between $1.80 and $4.80; tickets for the 2012 run range from $111 to $840. After adjusting for inflation, that’s a 10-fold increase, well beyond the reach of today’s putative Willy Lomans.”  Being priced out of the “Left Coasts” liberal ruling class preferred activity is more than ok.  We don’t do trips to space, or cruises either.

 

“Ever tightening financial straits for the average American and the erosion of social safety nets have given the lie to now quaint values like hard work. Perhaps elite intellectuals like Mr. Miller himself unwittingly created an atmosphere hostile to such middle-class attitudes.”  More likely the expansion of the social safety nets has made hard work for suckers, but try hard work, you will like it.

 

“Perhaps there is a simple, unlovely reason “Death of a Salesman” has become such a beloved institution. Instead of humbling its audience through the shock of recognition, the play now confers upon the people who can afford to see it a feeling of superiority — itself a fragile illusion. ”  Liberal need something to make themselves superior.  In the back of their minds they know they are inferior to the average (flyover country) Joe.  They are the Capital dwellers of the “Hunger Games”