Empirical Violence → Professional Chicken → The Unworking Class

Hey Neighbor. True story. Two friends sitting in Raleigh-Durham International talking about an ex-husband. “I paid all his student loans when we were married, and now he says he can’t get a job?” The question circles the Delta Sky Club but doesn’t land. 

The obvious answer goes unsaid: “Yup.”

➺ A huge thanks to all of you (lots and lots) who participated in the “Self-Assessment Survey,” which required some deep human honesty. Hopefully the results contextualize the feelings you shared.

➺ A respectful nod to Karl in N.C. for the anecdote above. If you’ve heard something irresistibly Upper Middle recently please share. We want to have ears everywhere (but, like, in a good way).

➺ I found a 2020 issue of The Economist behind some old shampoo. Flipped. Yikes.

Upper Middle’s Q2, 2025 “Status Symbol” Survey is our attempt to find out how members of the oat milk elite are flaunting their social rank and how those efforts are going down with their less cringe-y peers. Data will be shared with survey participants and, as always, with members.

TASTE ❧ d+1

Gilroy, forever the Michael Clayton guy, writes about the Empire for people who know how that kind of thing works.

Like many of Gilroy's heroes, Diego Luna’s Cassian Andor never has a moral awakening. His heroism is rooted not in goodness, but in realness – his refusal to participate in the Empire’s collective fictions. What makes the show so bleakly legible for people with Tetris-ed Google cals is that specific stubbornness, which we have all encountered in fellow members of professional managerial class – typically just before they got themselves fired.^[1] Andor hits because we root for those people even though we know how the story ends.

➺ Why belle époque architecture still rips. ➺ Is “Warby Parker Smart Glasses” an oxymoron? ➺ Everyone is buying jewelry (never a good sign). ➺ The big business of boxy university sweatshirts.

MONEY ❧ Middling

The House of Representatives has passed President Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill" by a 215–214 vote, advancing it to the Senate. Among other things, the bill redefines the "middle class" by extending tax benefits to households earning up to $500,000 (quite a bit more than the $188K the Pew Research Center uses as the upper limit of middle class)^[2]. Put differently, the bill may significantly benefit the exact kinds of Upper Middle professionals who reflexively rejected Trump at the polls.

At it stands, the bill raises the state and local tax (SALT) deduction cap from $10,000 to $40,000 for individuals earning up to $500,000, with annual 1% increases through 2033. It also permanently increases the estate tax exemption to $15 million for single filers and $30 million for married couples, starting in 2026 and indexed for inflation thereafter. That’s ostensibly good news for a lot of people who will see it as bad news.

➺ One in four listings on Zillow got a price cut in April (the most since 2018). ➺ People are probably paying mid five figures to sit near Timothy Chalamet, not the Knicks. ➺ As mortgages rise, Trump starts looking at privatizing Fannie and Freddie. Ruroh.

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