20 Once-Normal Activities We All Enjoyed But Now Are Only For The Well-Off
“What was loved by poor people until rich people ruined it?” When this question was posed on Reddit, it generated a whirlwind of responses. The kind of replies that made us stop and think, “Hey, there are a lot of things we used to do that we can’t afford now! What gives?” Here are 20 formerly normal activities that, over time, have been co-opted by the rich.
1. Toast
Okay, hear us out. Toast was once maybe the humblest of breakfast options. It was always reliably cheap and gloriously versatile. And there’s no end to what you can add to your morning toast: peanut butter, jelly, eggs, honey, bacon, you name it. But nowadays, restaurants are getting crazy with how much they’re charging for good old-fashioned toast. Even way back in 2018, the average price of avocado toast in American cities was $11, so you can bet it’s higher today. And in lots of restaurants, it’s closer to $20. Fun fact: the most expensive avo toast in the world is worth more than $3 million! To be fair, it’s made of solid gold and not edible, but still.
2. Theater/Broadway
Have you tried to buy a ticket for a Broadway show lately? We have — and felt like we’d need to take out a second mortgage to afford it! Theater was once aimed at mass audiences, but these days it’s almost exclusively the domain of the upper crust. Naturally, there are exceptions — community theater and shows by smaller production companies are more affordable — but most people won’t have a hope of ever seeing one of the big-ticket extravaganzas live.
3. Collectible items
Most of us had a collection of something growing up — Beanie babies, baseball cards, dolls. Nowadays, though, collectibles are big business, and manufacturers price accordingly. As an example, comic books were once semi-disposable items bought by kids in a convenience store, read and then stuffed in their back pockets. Now they cost at least $3.99 for a single issue, can only be bought in specialty shops, and their associated products — action figures etc — are insanely expensive.
4. Food trucks
The days of paying peanuts for a greasy hot dog are long gone — nowadays most food trucks are full of high-priced gourmet items. The reason for this can be traced back to the financial crisis of 2007/08. Customers had less money to go to restaurants, so many in the industry pivoted to trucks with smaller overheads. They continued to provide the same high-quality food though — which is pricey — and over time that became the new normal.
