Lower-income Americans worry about basic problems, in this order:Budget deficit is #2 for better off Americans? WTF?At the upper section of the spectrum, at incomes over $75,000, things look different, in that order:
- Hunger/homelessness
- Crime/violence
- Healthcare
- Drug use
- Terrorism
- Social Security
- Economy
- Healthcare
- Budget deficit
- Economy
- Social Security
- Environment
- Race relations
- Hunger/homelessness
This Economy is Ruined for Many Americans
Wolf Richter
ReplyDelete"Budget deficit is #2 for better off Americans? WTF? "
They all think that one day the govt is going to HAVE TO impose a large tax on them and take away all of their munnie they have saved ..... to avoid "bankruptcy!" Etc....
"Budget deficit is #2 for better off Americans? WTF? "
ReplyDeleteCommentator "Blissex" said in a comment a while back on stumbling and mumbling:
For a given level of unemployment, loose money and tight fiscal policy might generate more inequality.
In a democratic system this might be a strongly expressed preference of many if not most voters, because they might well think that more inequality favours them, especially if it is asset-price based inequality and they happen to be long assets but (relatively) short productive work, for example middle aged or retired people
Also:
"So there is little mobility and the majority of voters should be voting according their current wallets, not their delusionary future ones. But that culture change requires a very long time; and who is going to push it? Who has a vested interest in snapping the median voter out of the dream of becoming a Dixie plantation owner? Can't see anybody paying money to do that."
"look at it from the point of view of the "Republican suburbanite", who is sure that he *deserves* morally to be rewarded for his superior abilities, and that it is equally moral that every untermensch get punished for their inferior character.
The key is the Dixie attitude that in a plantation there are the deserving Real Americans in their hilltop mansion (the gated community) and the rest are insignificant, worthless untermensch.
In countries where the rich think themselves as ordinary people with more money they too see the good points of insuring *everybody* against excessive risk.
The USA has been going Dixie, and going Dixie is what Latin America has done for a long time: with light skinned elites with a pretty decent and advanced standard of living, and to whom the benefits of civilization is reserved, and a majority of brown untermensch. Sure, the averages are terrible, but the light skinned elites are doing well, so why worry about the rest? It is a bimodal distribution."
Random that is textbook Christendumb philosophy of justification thru works 101 which is a cousin of Darwinism 101 for the elite atheists...
ReplyDeleteLower-income Americans worry about basic problems, in this order:
ReplyDeleteHunger
homelessness
Healthcare
If you're worried about these, nothing else really matters.
Terrorism? LOL
Crime/violence/drug use? These are part and parcel of being poor. In other words they are the normal condition.
Social security? Sure, if you live that long. A couple hundred a month is a big deal when you're at the bottom.
Economy? Hahahaha, my investment portfolio tanked ... and I owe the CC company $8k.