POD People 2025
In the cultural zeitgeist, the term Pod People refers to the novel and film franchise Invasion of the Body Snatchers, in which nomadic aliens reach Earth and spawn emotionless replicas of humans.
The Pod People have been viewed as metaphors for Communism (the replacement of individuals with zombie-like Group-Think) and for conformity, i.e. social Group-Think.
My meaning is entirely different: POD People refers to the present reality of Precariats in 2025, who live in a world of Precarity, Ordeals and Debasement (POD): precarity–insecure work and income; ordeals–finding affordable housing and healthcare (difficult for low-income wage earners), dealing with institutional bureaucracies, public and private; and debasement, what I call Anti-Progress, the debasement of goods and services across the spectrum of daily life, the incremental decline of quality and value, often in ways that are unseen yet consequential.
The ranks of the POD People are swelling, expanding far beyond the working class deep into the middle class and upper middle class as secure employment becomes scarce, housing, healthcare and childcare become increasingly unaffordable, and the asset bubbles that have provided a veneer of financial security to the middle class are wobbling.
The debasement of food and the digital world affect everyone. The nutrient content of our food has been declining for years, even as ultra-processed foods replace real foods due to the higher profitability of ultra-processed snacks and products. The debasement of the digital world manifests in many ways, debasing our mental and social health.
What once worked is now an ordeal.Under-competence is now the norm, meaning fewer workers know how to fix what’s broken. Regulatory thickets make what was once relatively smooth (obtaining a building permit, etc.) into months-long ordeals, and simple tasks now require extraordinary effort to get stuff fixed or restored. Medical appointments are now booked months in advance, replacement parts are no longer available–the list of debasement / Anti-Progress is essentially endless.
In one way or another, we’re all POD People now, for precarity, ordeals and debasement are the New Normal.