It’s a bigger problem that barely has to do with the specific shows or movies. Marvel Studios has mostly been coasting since Endgame. It also didn’t prioritize female led properties, so they’re all coming out in this coasting period. This means they might be on average not as good. It’s not directly because they’re female led, but it is sort of indirectly because of that.

I’d say the fact that leftist socialist or communist movements keep decaying into authoritarian dictatorships is a pretty big weakness of communism, actually. I think Western capitalist countries are not perfect by any means, but they’re winning the quality of life game, even of poor people.

That’s kind of true in some parts of the US, indirectly. Some places criminalize not being homeless but all the things that are the result of being homeless like sleeping outside or in public places. But there are a lot of places in the US that do provide for the homeless. New York City has a right to housing provision, for example.

There were some microtransaction services that sort of worked like this. I think one was called Flattr? I don’t know how well they actually worked or what happened to them.

Another explanation is that American cuisine got wrecked by the Great Depression. Everything that had flavor was expensive. People’s inability to purchase and make certain foods stopped generational transfer of knowledge on how to make certain things. Thankfully, after several generations it’s finally recovering.

“Ethnic” food (non European) wasn’t as affected as much.

I heard an interview about a book on it a few years ago but now I can’t find it.