Here in Ireland, the most basic thing that's changed is housing. Dublin Corporation (which bafflingly renamed itself Dublin City Council out of the blue a few years ago) used to build houses and flats to the very highest standard of workmanship and materials.
In the Thatcher era, it became fashionable to sell these off, and so the Corpo did; I knew people who bought the council house they were renting for €15k and immediately sold it for €20k.
The effect was twofold: it enormously fuelled a house price bubble, and it deprived the poor of secure places to live where the rent was guaranteed not to rise past what they could pay. This again had a knock-on effect: people couldn't afford to study and get good qualifications; people emigrated; the poorest became desperate as they fell down through the holes in the safety net.
I hardly ever go into the city now; when I do, I'm lacerated by the sight of people in sleeping bags or wrapped in dirty blankets staring at the ground with a begging cup (nowadays this is a McDonald's paper cup) beside them.
I try to spend €5 a week buying one of these people a small meal - soup and a sandwich - and having a chat.
According to the New Yorker, the super-rich are preparing for revolution. Why they don't instead lean on their governments to finance housing and education…?