"Good taste" is about class anxiety

It is my personal belief that almost every American cultural trend, the ones you like and the ones you hate, comes from the widening wealth gap that began in the 1970s and continues to this day. Just look at brie (the cheese), which middle-class Americans suddenly got super into almost immediately after that. The brie example comes from S. Margot Finn, author and lecturer at the University of Michigan, whom The Goods’ Rachel Sugar [interviewed about why suburban grocery stores now carry three kinds of kale](and why consuming a fancy preparation of steak is now considered morally superior to possessing a great quantity of steak (which was not the case in mid-century America, when the middle class held more cultural authority and there were far fewer billionaires). As you can likely deduce, there is a lot going on in this interview, and all of it is completely fascinating! —[Rebecca Jennings](, reporter for The Goods “Good taste” is all about class anxiety [kale salad]( Getty Images We are living in what appears to be an age of great culinary awakening. It is reflected everywhere: the aisles of grocery stores are stocked with organic, non-GMO, locally-grown, cage-free, plant-based options. On television, you can watch food-related programming every hour of every day. Celebrity chefs have transcended the foodie sphere and become general household names, while high-profile food activists have become celebrities. Restaurants featuring cuisines from all over the world are nestled in suburban strip malls, your standard Safeway has three kinds of kale, and if you encounter a recipe that calls for an ingredient you can’t get — while book sales are declining generally, [cookbook sales are up]( — well, that’s no problem, you just order it online. And this seems good! We used to have worse taste, as a nation, but now, with the help of technology and shipping and immigration and tourism, we have refined our palates, and now our taste is good, and soon it will be even better. It is an appealing explanation for a shift, which began in the 1980s and continues to the present day. Who doesn’t like progress? Who doesn’t like three kinds of kale? [Read the full story on Vox ]( Startups are selling you pills through Instagram. Why don’t they say which ones? Instagram forbids the paid marketing of pharmaceuticals. But what happens when you click through on the promise of feeling better? [Read the story here ]( The best $1.50 I ever spent: a kneadable eraser It’s the best method I’ve found to keep myself from fussing with my eyebrows. [Read the story here ]( More good stuff to read today - [VSCO girls and how teen culture goes viral]( - [Rent the Runway customers are reporting horror stories of canceled dress deliveries and customer service breakdowns]( - [Another budget travel company shut down, stranding nearly 600,000 passengers]( - [“Heritage travel” is surging in the era of DNA testing. It has a special significance for black Americans.]( - [Flavored vapes are facing a ban. What does that mean for vapers?]( Manage your [email preferences](, or [unsubscribe]( to stop receiving emails from Vox Media. Vox Media, 1201 Connecticut Ave. NW, Washington, DC 20036. Copyright © 2018. All rights reserved.