America is in the midst of a zombie renaissance, says Torie Bosch at Slate. It's no coincidence that "the undead have gone from lowbrow guilty pleasure to the favored monster of the erudite" just as the economy slipped into malaise, and then recession. As a pop-culture and marketing theme, "zombies are the perfect representation of the fiscal horror show" we're living through, especially for endangered white-collar workers who feel like the walking dead. Ironically, zombies' "contribution to Main Street's economy is very much alive," feeding more than $5 billion into U.S. cash registers in recent years, and even more globally, says Jon C. Ogg at 24/7 Wall Street. A guide, by the numbers:
$5.74 billion
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
What are the rules of a no-buy vs. low-buy year?The Explainer These two revised approaches to purchasing could help you save big
-
80 dead in Colombia amid uptick in guerrilla fightingSpeed Read This was the country's deadliest wave of violence since the peace accords set by President Gustavo Petro in 2016
-
Trump starts term with spate of executive ordersSpeed Read The president is rolling back many of Joe Biden's climate and immigration policies
