There is clearly some bounce back happening, but is it permanent? If we sense there has been some permanent change, we should try to be precise about exactly what that change is. I'm going to suggest that those who say the culture has changed the economy might be reversing cause and effect.<p>In a comment above, PragmaticPulp wrote "I’ve been surprised at how quickly everything has been snapping back to pre-pandemic normalcy after the temporary disruptions".<p>That's what I see too. But it's also clear that the government pushed trillions of dollars of stimulus into the economy, some of which went straight to the workers, and this leaves many workers, especially the poorest workers, with more leverage than they've had in decades.<p>The era 1932-1968 is sometimes broadly referred to as the New Deal era, a period of progressive reform. We don't have a name for the era 1968-2008, but it was an era when there was an emphasis on limiting government, cutting taxes, opening borders, catering to corporate needs -- a bundle of policies that some people call "neoliberal". For the sake of argument, let's call that the neoliberal era.<p>Since 2008 the old neoliberal consensus has been falling apart. Trump ran as a populist, Biden was elected promising progressive policies, Trump and Biden collectively pushed through several trillion dollars of stimulus. Biden has put in place a $300-a-month cash payment for each child a family has.<p>So I'd argue, if there has been a change that feels permanent, it is a political change. If we're moving into an era where the government pushes money directly to individual workers, then we're moving into an era when workers are going to have more leverage than they've had since the end of the post war boom, back in 1973.