TheDemonBuer

It seems the right believes very strongly in hierarchy, especially hierarchies of supremacy. I think they believe these hierarchies are natural, like they are the way things are supposed to be. They believe the men at the top of the hierarchy are there because they are just naturally superior, and the people who are further down the hierarchy are there because they are naturally inferior. That's how they justify their hierarchies of dominance and power.

It's no coincidence that the men at the top of these hierarchies are almost exclusively all rich. Nothing proves a man's superiority more than wealth. He's rich because he's great, and he's great because he's rich. Similarly, being poorer is proof of inferiority.

That's why I think the US is headed toward becoming an extreme oligarchy. It's all about maintaining hierarchies based on wealth. It's all about making sure the right kinds of rich men are able to keep their natural place in the hierarchy, and that inferior people are kept in their place.

I don't expect people to ignore color, I just don't think we should look only at color. I don't think physical characteristics are irrelevant, but you can't define a group of people by that alone.

I criticise the continued practice of grouping people together based solely on skin color. It's a horribly antiquated practice and we need to move beyond it.

I don't know exactly how bad a second Trump term would be, but I'd really rather not find out. At best it will be embarrassing and absurd, at worst it would be devastating and catastrophic for countless millions, both inside and outside the US.

I will be voting for Kamala, because I do think it's very important that Trump not get reelected. I hope she wins, but her winning alone will not be enough. We need to do a better job of figuring out why America is in the state that it is in, so that we can come up with ways to fix it (assuming it can be fixed).

I don't know what each of these people is going through, which is why I think this poll is so important. If you want to know how people feel, you ask them. These people are telling us how they feel about the economy. If you want to know why they feel the way they feel, you'll need to ask them more questions, not just construct a conspiracy theory to explain their answer and justify your indifference to it.

They're more tied to party affiliation than anything to do with reality.

Ah, I see, so you're saying you understand the reality of each of these Americans better than they understand their own reality? You have an intimate knowledge of each and everyone of these people's personal financial situation? Like some kind of omniscient god?

Just to make sure I understand, you're saying that the 45% of respondents who said they think the state of the economy is poor, did so not because of their lived experience, personal financial condition, employment prospects, etc, but because they've been hypnotized by propaganda into thinking they're doing poorly even though they are actually doing well? Is that what you're saying?

On average, pay has risen faster than prices in recent years.

Fuck the average. Incomes vary far, far too much for the average to mean much of anything.

Everyone, from small business owners, to the self employed and independent contractors, to hourly wage earners who have not seen their income increase at a rate that is at least equal to the rate of inflation, every year, have had a pay cut. I can't say how many of these people there are, but I would estimate they number in the millions.

According to Gallup’s most recent Economic Confidence Index, 45% of respondents rate America's current economic conditions as poor. 31% rate it as fair, 24% as excellent/good.

The absolutely massive disconnect between economists and the average person is staggering. There's only one word to describe the attitudes of these economic experts: hubris.

Look, it's great that the economic numbers are so good right now, but ours is not an economy of numbers, it's an economy of people. If the people do not think the economy is doing well, it's not doing well, the numbers be damned. GDP, the stock market, average wealth and income, they don't matter. What matters is how people feel, and large numbers of Americans don't feel great about the economy. That's simply the fact of the matter, and tough shit to any economists who doesn't like it.

By 2030? Not going to happen, then.

You're right, that would be virtually impossible. I should have said that we need to decommission the fossil fuel powered machines as quickly as possible, to have the best chance of reducing global GHG emissions by >45% by 2030. But, we do need to have all fossil fuel powered machines that have GHG emissions that can't be offset by things like carbon capture and sequestration, decommissioned by 2050, to meet the Paris climate agreement goals. That gives us a couple more decades, but even that will be extraordinarily difficult.