America's Desk Top Model → Heirloom People → Against "Entrepreneurialism"

Hey Neighbor. The Walt Disney Corporation has announced plans for Asteria, a cluster of million-dollar homes in NC built around a community garden. Historically, House of Mouse developments – like Florida’s Celebration and California’s Cotino – initially pull in conservatives who like homogeneity and conformity (enforced by hardcore residential owners associations) then move left fast, attracting people who like walkability, strong zoning laws, and well-staffed farmer’s markets.

We all want a small world after all.

➺ Thanks to all of you who participated in our Gardening Survey (results below). We appreciate both your enthusiasm and your weird obsession with Japanese Maples.

➺ Big week at Upper Middle Research. Thanks for the sign-ups and congrats to the one guy who made $450. You love to see it.

➺ Someone answered the garden survey entirely in Latin. There’s a 50% chance it was my wife. (She denies it.)

Upper Middle’s 2025 Spoiled Dog Survey is our attempt to document the degree to which members of the oatmilk elite spoil their beloved pooches. Data will be shared with survey participants and, as always, with members.

STATUS ❧ The hard thing to make look easy…

The Other Business Holiday

With a bit of help from the U.S.S.R. (all those jackbooted parades), Grover’s big plan worked. May Day fell off the calendar. The biggest factor? Lack of solidarity among wage earners. By the late 20th century, white-collar professionals with intrinsic motivations – the expectation that work creates meaning – looked down on blue-collar workers with extrinsic motivations. Not only were Upper Middle professionals reluctant to view their labor purely economic terms, they imagined that their incentives aligned with those of the bosses who hired them to “be entrepreneurial.”

But “entrepreneurial” is a nonsense word. You either own the place, or you’re paid for your time. May Day was about one kind of leverage. Labor Day is about the other. Neither is bad per se – lots of us do find meaning in work – but these are two different things. One instills fear and one does not. Here’s how you know: The House GOP started its big push for a bill full of tax cuts for corps on… April 30. 

➺ “We feel we need to know the status hierarchies to negotiate our futures, and those intuitions carry over into politics, and thus we obsess over gossip, evaluation, and damning judgment.” (READ MORE)

➺ The growing exclusivity of leisure pursuits has ramifications that aren’t just economic…. Hobbies create “social worlds.” (READ MORE)

➺ “I know a lot of dudes who are addicted to ‘healing.’” (READ MORE)

EAVESDROPPINGS ❧ Unfiltered and unrelatable…

➺ “You can't drink a martini with jeans on. It's a sin.” - Brunette at a bar in Dallas.

➺ “This is the time of the year when my friends with second houses start to mysteriously disappear. It’s the rapture for people with family money.” - Banker at a dog park outside Boston.

➺ “You told me art should be able to ruin your life.” - Guy on a bike in Brooklyn.

➺ “Hey mom, can you make me and Heron a charcuterie board for snack?” - Second grader to his mother after school.

➺ “It's so funny - I never drink beer unless I'm in Europe!” - Woman eating at Via Carota in the West Village.

Thanks to This Week’s Contributors: Jessica Kelly, Taylor Acosta-Rutland, Anonymoose, Dr. Mom, and Work" from Home.

What’s the most Upper Middle thing you hear this week?

TASTE ❧ The next best thing to a personality…

America’s Desk Top Model

In the wake of Fashion Week, a lot has been written about “corpcore.” Pinstripes, “office siren” skirts, and squared-off silhouettes are taken as evidence that greed is good again. Maybe. But wearing blazers seems more like an “Extinction Burst,” a behavior repeated more frequently and violently just after the motivation for that behavior disappears and just before the behavior itself ceases – like jiggling the knob on a door with a broken lock. Culturally, Ludditism was an extinction burst. So was Prohibition. So was – it’s worth pointing out – late 1980s corporatism amid looming recession. Viewed through that lens, Calvin Klein’s corpcore outfits look more like an expression of frustration than of a desire to bang in the supply closet^[2].

➺ “It’s important to recognize that the international idea of the ‘grand hotel’ as we understand it today—that’s an American invention. Starting in the 1850s, we led the world in hotels.” (READ MORE)

Upper Middle is a member-supported publication. For full access to our work – including data reporting on how your peers spend time and money – become a member. Not only is joining free, members receive invitations to take highly paid (up to $300 an hour) professional surveys. This allows us to make money with rather than on our readers.

Here’s what your missing today:

➺ A bunch of interesting data on how Upper Middle readers garden and, more specifically, just how obsessed we all are with tomatoes.

➺ Hot Warren Buffett goss….

➺ Graphic violence. (Not really).

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