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Politics and Economics
Unfortunately, most of the chronic and unsheltered homeless are either unable or unwilling to work. For example, according to San Francisco’s latest homeless count, just 11% of the respondents reported they worked, whether full-time, part-time, sporadically, or in seasonal/temporary jobs. And just 14% of the employed reported they made more than $1500 a month. That means less than 2% of all the homeless interviewed for the San Francisco count earned more than $1500 a month.
The right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness: sounds good to me. These rights pretty much cover the purview of government, not counting the obligation to protect other species - but that’s a subject for another day. For now we’re dealing with what governments owe their humans. First, some clarification according to my sense of these three basic rights.
The above quotes project an attitude of compassion (“let’s reach out to these folks”), sympathetic understanding (“they didn’t know where to turn”) and/or fellow-feeling (”They have just succumbed to fear, like all of us have done sometime in our lives”), yet each presents Trump voters as clueless, debilitated by fear, and/or in need of guidance. That’s what I call an air of superiority. And, no, I didn’t vote for Trump.
Jasanoff clearly feels past abuses should be revealed and some sort of historical debt paid, starting with a gesture of recompense and proceeding to a possibly never-ending reckoning. What does that mean in concrete terms? What’s the reckoning plan? What’s the reckoning goal? When is enough enough, reckoning-wise? On a related note, what is reckoning meant to accomplish?
Per the Gallup survey, Republicans care more about national security, the economy and crime than do the Democrats. Many Republicans also consider Democrats weak - if not downright counterproductive - on these issues. Republican votes are therefore largely driven by two considerations: vote for candidates they perceive as strong on national security, the economy, and crime and vote against candidates they think will undermine national security, damage the economy, and increase crime.
Aside from “love of country”, not even the dictionaries agree on the nature of such love. What is it? A passionate urge to support, serve and defend one’s country? Devotion to the welfare of one’s compatriots? Loving one’s country more than other countries? Being proud of one’s country? These are not the same things. Plus, they don’t provide much insight into what patriotism means to those who embrace patriotic sentiments without apology. Let’s see what patriotism means to these folks…
There is no reason conservatives can’t embrace goals like universal healthcare. With the above safeguards in place, they may go forth and advance bold policy initiatives without violating their core principles.
The Perception Gap survey found that both Democrats and Republicans have a distorted understanding of each others’ views…Surprisingly, the most educated Democrats are the least accurate in their estimate of Republican views and the Democrats’ Perception Gap increased about 4 percentage points with each level of education.
“Jeff Bezos is about to become the world’s first trillionaire while we’re about to enter a depression.” As of today, this tweet has garnered 260,400 Likes and 52,000 retweets. Too bad it’s wrong - by a long shot. Here’s the real scoop…
Of course, schools shouldn’t be re-opened in areas with high rates of Covid infection. But what’s happening in many communities is that local residents are demanding schools remain closed, even when infection rates are low and well within state, CDC, and WHO guidelines for reopening schools.
According to the Hate Crime Statistics Act, hate crimes are incidents motivated by bias against the victim due to his or her race, ethnicity, gender or gender identity, sexual orientation, religion or disability. Around half the hate crimes in the US are not reported to law enforcement and hence are not documented in the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports (UCR). However, the US Bureau of Justice National Crime Victimization Surveys (NCVS) supplement the FBI stats and provide a more comprehensive picture of hate crime frequency, victims, offenders and trends.
…Bottom line: individuals with greater proficiency in literacy and math earn more, on average, than individuals who are less proficient. With that in mind, consider the following charts…
Just 16 states account for two-thirds of Covid-related deaths in the US. Covid mortality rates track population density fairly closely. Political party affiliation also tracks population density, a phenomenon known as the “density divide”. To simplify a bit, the less densely populated an area, the more Republican and the less affected by Covid. It’s no surprise, then, that Republicans are less concerned about Covid-19 than the Democrats..
As for the relationship between inequality and happiness, it’s complicated. Inequality alone - that is, controlling for poverty and social mobility - does not appear to a strong, consistent or direct effect on society-wide levels of happiness. And in the US and elsewhere, surveys have consistently found that inequality simply isn’t a pressing issue for most people. Still, the very thought of inequality does makes some people very angry and indignant. But those reactions are often based on ideas, e.g. social justice or a zero-sum understanding of economics.
People often change their political minds as they get older. Adolescents and young adults tend to form political opinions that reflect those of their peers or are more extreme versions of their parents’ politics (as befits the intensity of youth). Then something happens: the intrepid fledglings leave home and school, enter the greater world of work and responsibility, and begin to doubt their old certainties about how the world is and should be. Or at least some do.
To make matters worse, there are almost as many “near-poor” California residents as there are poor residents. In other words, more than a third of Californians are living in or near poverty (Public Policy Institute of California July 2020).
Gilens and Page also treat average citizens and economic elites as though they were two distinct groups. But they’re not. According to multiyear tax return data, over half of American householders reach the top 10% income bracket for one or more years by age 60 (over two-thirds reach the top 20% of the income distribution). If getting into the top 10% counts as being an economic elite, then over half of ordinary citizens become economic elites at some point in their lives (and over two-thirds get to be near-elites). Sorta muddies the water.
Of course, the reductionists could be partly right in some cases under some conditions. This is ultimately an empirical matter. The challenge is to separate sound studies from junk studies. Take Sapolsky’s assertion that a young child’s personality predicts her politics as an adult. What is his basis for such a claim? One measly study…
If one truly believes “social issues can’t be solved logically because they involve people, who are emotional and irrational” or that “what people think ultimately comes down to their personal moral compass, not a dispassionate evaluation of the facts”, why even bother to engage people who think differently than we do? Today’s partisans might respond: the better to gain ammunition against the enemy.
An Excerpt: “Defying conventional wisdom about a polarized electorate, a report based on in-depth surveys of more than 80,000 Americans shows that majorities from both parties agree on nearly 150 key policy positions across more than a dozen top policy areas. The research suggests that Americans are eager for their elected representatives to cross party lines to start tackling the nation’s toughest problems…In the surveys, respondents were given in-depth information about the policy issues and legislative proposals under consideration in Congress, and evaluated arguments for and against each policy option before coming to their conclusions. The content was reviewed by experts at both ends of the spectrum of opinion on the issues.”
Now that’s the way to conduct a survey!