For the future of America.
As a progressive, I will admit that I'm not happy with President Obama. There isn't anything short of pointing a loaded gun at one of my loved ones that will get me to vote for Romney, however -- or any of the proposed Republican candidates.
What I do not understand, however, is how many people -- millions -- consistently vote against their own economic self-interest. Again and again we see people eagerly voting for the party that is controlled by business interests that want nothing more than to separate you from your money as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
Again and again these large business interests lay American workers off and ship the jobs overseas. Again and again they do everything they can to strip unions of their rights, to purposely bankrupt companies to avoid paying pensions that were agreed upon decades ago. And because of accounting rules and laws they had put into place by purchasing political influence, they can do all this while taking huge "bonuses" for themselves and their cronies.
So I began thinking about this problem, this issue. While it is true that no real politician worth his weight truly has the needs of individual constituents at the forefront of his mind it is true that people have generally fared better, economically speaking, under Democratic administrations. So what does the right do to regain power? They leverage social topics such as gay marriage and Second Amendment issues to appeal to the emotional side of ill-educated voters.
I guess voters don't want to be told the truth.
Here's the truth about the idea that tax cuts for the wealthy will create jobs: It won't.
Wealthy people don't remain wealthy by spending more money than they make. The key to creating jobs isn't giving rich people more money, but creating a business environment that allows them to invest and earn more, regardless of the tax rate. This is an important distinction: Business people will create jobs if the environment exists that will make this job creation profitable.
What we see now is that it is hugely profitable to pay a Chinese factory worker a fraction of what we would have to pay an American worker to make the same product. Americans have minimum wage laws, and a high "overhead" cost (medical insurance, 401Ks, etc.) When you can pay a Chinese factory worker .05% of what you pay an American, it's a no-brainer to ship that job overseas. Because the rate of profit to the business owner is enormous!
When voters complain that there aren't any good jobs, and the rich and powerful argue that the reason more "good jobs" aren't being created is because of "uncertainty" and "regulations" the regulations they are speaking about are these same minimum-wage laws! There are people out there in the United States today that think that $2/hour is a fine wage. (That's $80 a week, $320 a month, and less than $4,000 a year -- before taxes.)
One of the problems with ill-educated voters, I think (and this is my opinion) is that a lot of them are what I call "frustrated millionaires." Not in that they actually have millions of dollars and are experiencing frustration, but that they are Joe Sixpack, middle-class worker bees who are sure that they're one lucky break (a lottery win, a huge inheritance) away from being an actual millionaire, and the very idea that the moment they get the hands on those oodles and oodles of cash that the government will come by and TAX TAX TAX it all away makes them sick.
So, after all that, this is my honest question: Why do people vote against their own economic self-interest?
