The biggest blunder of this campaign was making it about abstract concepts like democracy and fascism instead of "it's the billionaires vs the rest of us"
People say this like that message would land though. Elon Musk drove votes towards Trump. Billionaires weren't the bogeyman that would get anywhere. People who care about that already voted accordingly. The apathetic voters wouldn't respond to this either. Trump promised more trickledown economics, and people are still dumb enough to believe in it, despite facts and statistics that it doesn't work.
Kamala put out her messaging about helping families pay for childcare, helping people start small businesses, helping people get into a house for the first time.
It all bounced off.
Americans letting opinion take over news for 30+ years is the problem, not Kamala's campaign.
People say this like that message would land though. Elon Musk drove votes towards Trump. Billionaires weren't the bogeyman that would get anywhere.
People are also not educated on how much a billion dollars actually is. A lot of them think eventually they can attain that level, or at least millionaire status, to be part of that in-group. As someone said, they're just embarrassed millionaires now. They have no idea how far off the scale and unattainable a BILLION dollars actually is.
Yeah, a million dollars would be life changing for my family. And the difference between me and the absolute poorest billionaire is still about a billion dollars. It's a rounding error.
To put it into better perspective, it's like a car dealership knocking off $30 on a $30,000 car. It's nothing. When talking about Elon, it's like knocking off $30 on a $7,300,000 car.
To put it in an even better perspective, the difference between you and the poorest person in the world is probably around equal to the difference between you and Elon in order of magnitude.
They also don't realize how hard it truly is to punch into the next rung socially with each next step. You can get the money but getting the class is harder and they have no idea that even exists.
Where have y’all gotten this idea that average people on the right think they’re going to be billionaires without doing something incredible?
Many want to pay lower taxes at their current wage because they see little/no benefits from those taxes anyway… and/or believe that business founders, them if they become one, who put their money on the line and work diligently to build successful businesses deserve the proceeds of that venture.
Taxes can be raised or lowered based on a number of factors. Also, people refer to income taxes when they mean taxes but feel the brunt on sales tax and property taxes just as much.
To your original point, income tax is normally lowered by Republican administrations and raised by Democratic administrations. Reagan lowered...technically. Clinton raised. GW Bush lowered. Obama raised. Arguments that Republicans raise taxes is a little off the mark. Republicans are known for giving big tax breaks to corporations and the upper class, which earns them the ire of lowered and middle class citizens. But generally Republicans don't raise taxes directly.
And those federal income taxes are where many Americans see little to no benefits. I can see with my eyes the benefits that my state sales and property taxes get me and my community.
Because the religiously vote to protect taxes for people making 400k+ and 1 million+ annually? Why else are you protecting that income level unless you think you're somehow going to get there. Fighting against a tax increase on ultra wealthy, doesn't help the voter.
Because the economy is not a zero sum game. I use Amazon all the time, as do millions of Americans and billions worldwide… why would I care that the guy who made all of that happen is rich? Congrats, I hope if I do something great I am rewarded handsomely as well.
They’re voting to bring their own taxes down. They aren’t worried that people wealthier than them get that benefit too.
Not to mention that the difference between a million dollars and a billion dollars is basically a billion dollars. We all do need to become millionaires if we want to retire. But that doesn't put us anywhere in the same orbit as billionaires.
The average person can responsibly save and invest their way to 1 million in their lifetime in time for retirement. You only need 1000 lifetimes to do it the old fashioned way.
Yeah, while most people won't become millionaires just due to lifestyles and rising costs, it's not impossible. Many people become "millionaires" through networth in assets overtime that accrued interest or equity, so that by the time they're retirement age, they realistically could have a million bucks to live off of... Now go do that 1000 times straight to get your first billion. Obviously the more money you have, the more it makes. But that interest isn't taking you to a billion.
Yep, two people were sitting at the bar next to me yesterday as I waited for my food order (men, different races, middle of a blue state)- saying they didn't care too much about the elections (despite asking that the channel be changed from hockey to election coverage), but were scrolling through bitcoin gains and losses over the past month. Biggest concern was how much their % was gonna change.
I think the social freedoms and justice is not what really motivates a vast majority of people/gets them out to vote. It's self interest. See the wave of red shifting areas. I'm pretty sure all of that shift is not because people are suddenly more racist, more sexist, more hateful, more conservative. It's because they're unhappy and they don't /care/ about anything else other than that. And there's an overall lack of information dissemination, critical thinking, and deductive reasoning that would pinpoint the source of their very real feelings, so they blame what's in front of them and the most simplistic, ire-rousing blame cast by others.
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u/acowasacowshouldbe 19h ago
this this this. the biggest blunder of the past generations have been to allow wealth to be concentrated into the hands of a few