I also have a son who's a gamer. it's a tighter community Than what you mentioned (Music or Religion) and way more exposure. Its not uncommon for him to spend 30+ hrs a week in his "community"
There is good logic here, but one thing that is less than stellar is that it's based off of only 3 months of data. Its hard to tell if that is enough time for large projects to have started
I see the divide in my friends groups. There are no easy answers.
I think for me, one insight is that of my friends making over $100,000 lack the real awareness of what it means for my friends who make just enough to pay rent and food, while struggling to provide the life they want for their kids.
We ( I have been guilty of it) sometimes reduce the conversation to some version of "just re-tool" as if they are 10 weeks away from a different life. There are so many steps that I used to take for granted. Mindset is one of them. Different priorities is another major issue. I have a friend that could have worked on a cutting edge robotics team that stayed home and took a help desk job so he could live with his mom that is 88 years old and struggles to walk.
The hopelessness of many hard working and smart people is not very appreciated. They are not dumb or lacking discipline or some variation of that.
There is a real economic issue. Take school teachers or nurses (my wife's a nurse) that truly aren't paid adequately for their contribution.
is there fault they chose wrong at 18? That just seems too simple of an answer to me.
Pretty much the rest of the country has awful public schools. Every large city has a few good ones and a number of less than wonderful ones.
I think a meaningful separation point might be the cost of living and more specifically the taxes raised from housing. If you have houses with an average price of $1M and houses with an average price of $300k, in the latter a public school system would simply have less to work with.
It doesn't have to be a conspiracy for Large corporations to have self interest and to highlight stories that benefit them and minimize/ignore things that would negatively effect them.
I dont think many employee's have this mindset. This mindset would contribute to the issue and would be one that I would have not considered...so I thank you for your transparency.
I wish that I had hiked the Appalachians mountains. its a 7 month journey one of my friends did it in his 20's. I'm in my 40's and in good shape, but im not sure I could do that one anymore.