Totally agree. I don't understand what the mechanism of values "trickling down" is meant to be. In my experience, none of the people "downstream" care or are even at all aware of what the "upstream" elites think. Like, is the claim really that the deadbeat dad in his 30s mentioned in the OP got his values from an academic seminar on family formation? It's incoherent...

The people downstream watch hours of TV shows and internet media every day, most of which is created by people with elite-aspirational values. They also receive the clear message that these values are elite values. This is how values trickle down.

So the claim is that popular TV shows reflect this particular strain of (supposed) elite values? Can you point me to some examples?

> They also receive the clear message that these values are elite values.

How do they receive that message, exactly?

Especially since the argument seems to be that ‘elites’ actually live by one set of (good) values while somehow imposing ‘bad’ values or expectations on the lower classes. How exactly are these bad values communicated from the elites if they don’t live by them? How do the elites enforce the ‘good’ values among themselves without transmitting them to lower classes?

I agree there is doublespeak about values among some elites, but I disagree that is the major source of single parent families.