Skyrocketing food prices, interest rate shocks and real wage cuts. The financial conditions have changed significantly in the past year.
The shift has led to many households cutting back on spending and in several places there has been talk of how the middle class can no longer live like the upper class.
But Lisa Irenius, head of culture at Svenska Dagbladet, believes instead that it is influencers – not the upper class – who have changed the way in which material success is displayed.
“Completely unreasonable” image of consumption
– The ideals of the middle class have not been shaped by the upper class, but by an influencer class that has conveyed an image of consumption and how much we should consume that is completely unreasonable, she says in Economic Agency.
Entrepreneur Isabella Löwengrip, who broke through with the blog Blondinbella, agrees that influencers have contributed to people starting to display more of their consumption.
– The middle class has lived beyond its means. Not that you pretend to be influencers, but people have used their accounts to show how far you’ve come and what you can afford to do, she says.
Don’t want to blame influencers
But according to Isabella Löwengrip, it is also about the fact that Sweden was in an “extreme boom”.
– Many private individuals have made a lot of money and seen the value of their homes increase. Then you have felt rich and felt: “I can even buy a boat right now, money is so cheap.”
What responsibility do you influencers have?
– You can’t blame us. It is not us who caused the middle class to start consuming more and get into debt.
Don’t miss Ekonomibyrån’s latest episode Ugly to be rich? on SVT Play.