Saturday, August 25, 2012

When the system isn't rigged against them

Begin quote from Rana Foroohar's article in the new Time magazine of September 3, 2012 on page 14: "Americans are much more likely than, say, Europeans to tolerate high levels of income inequality. But in counting on American voters aspirational nature, Romney made and important miscalculation. People are willing to tolerate this inequality only when they feel the system isn't rigged against them. And everything about Romney--- from the $77,000 tax write-off for his wife's half million dollar show horse to his complicated Cayman Islands accounts---makes it seem like it is."

end quote from Time magazine September 3, 2012 page 14.

So, if the American people are not so averse to income inequality but they won't put up with a rigged system that doesn't allow for upward mobility which likely would get even worse under Romney than is has under Bush and Obama then the likelihood is that Obama will be re-elected.

I also agree that people in general in the U.S. are much more informed than they were in the past, first because of much higher levels of education than in the past and second, because of so many new forms of media, especially smart phones that go with people on buses and trains to work right along with them. So, literally anytime one is awake there is media (even the radio while driving the car to work). So, people are incredibly more informed than before. Also, there are people who have the time and inclination to study problems and who can give the results of their studies on their blogs like myself. There are millions of bloggers around the world analyzing problems everywhere and trying to come up with solutions. And often the writers of major publications read some these blogs from worldwide sources.

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