Goodhart's framework explained

In two thousand seventeen, British journalist David Goodhart split Western societies into Anywheres, about a quarter of the population, university-educated, urban and mobile, and Somewheres, more numerous, less educated with strong roots in one place.

What Anywheres believed

Anywheres relied on degrees and successful careers for identity. Being an Anywhere meant being on the winning side of globalization, often progressive, open to change and comfortable with diversity.

What Somewheres believed

Somewheres had strong roots in one place and believed in nation and family.For Goodhart, they felt left behind by globalization, which is why Brexit and Donald Trump's first election were read as the Somewheres' revenge.

The framework is now dated

Almost ten years later, the framework seems somewhat dated. The author, who lived much of her working life as an Anywhere between Paris, London and Munich, is struck by how much the balance of advantages…

Tech leaders changed sides

The most visible Anywheres, Silicon Valley founders, AI evangelists and crypto believers who sold the tools of placelessness, have now moved sharply to the right, rejecting progressivism, DEI programs and workers' rights.

Marc Andreessen's shift

Marc Andreessen published a Techno-Optimist Manifesto in two thousand twenty-three casting regulators and critics of technology as enemies of progress, then backed Trump in two thousand twenty-four.

“the final straw”

Peter Thiel's nationalist turn

Peter Thiel, who obtained New Zealand citizenship after spending just twelve days there, put fifteen million dollars into J.D.

The paradox of tech billionaires

For two decades, these men sold the cultural values of the Anywheres along with their software: mobility, openness, networks without borders, the idea that where you come from matters less than what you build.

Escape instead of repair

In their new book End Times Fascism, Naomi Klein and Astra Taylor describe tech billionaires who plan their escape to bunkers, floating cities or Mars, instead of repairing the world they live in.

“Anywhere but here”

Bezos and Shatner's lesson

In two thousand twenty-one, Jeff Bezos sent William Shatner, Star Trek's Captain Kirk, into space aboard Blue Origin. Shatner later drew a thoroughly Somewhere lesson from the experience.

“the beauty isn't out there, it's down here”

Digital platforms lost their promise

Digital platforms were first sold as networks promising you could make friends anywhere and reach any professional directly.

Housing costs price out mobile people

In large global cities, housing costs have risen faster than incomes.Mobile people pay the steepest price because they are always the newcomers on the market.Only the very rich can still live this way painlessly.

Inflation hit Anywheres hardest

Covid, the war in Ukraine, inflation and the war with Iran pushed up the price of everything an Anywhere relies on: restaurants, transportation, housing, healthcare, international schools, health coverage and travel.

Somewheres have cost advantages

Insiders anchored in one place pay less for the same life. They have support networks, housing bought or rented years ago at older prices, subscriptions locked in at old rates and enough local knowledge to…

The balance has shifted

The advantages of the Anywhere lifestyle have eroded as tech billionaires embrace nationalism, digital platforms deteriorate and housing costs make mobility unaffordable for ordinary people. Somewheres now have the economic upper hand.