Comments on: Why they insist on voting against their own self-interest. https://habitablezone.com/2016/01/24/why-they-insist-on-voting-against-their-own-self-interest/ Sat, 25 Apr 2026 16:17:27 -0700 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: ER https://habitablezone.com/2016/01/24/why-they-insist-on-voting-against-their-own-self-interest/#comment-35393 ER Mon, 25 Jan 2016 04:47:05 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=55234#comment-35393 There is all sorts of welfare for the middle class, from private school vouchers to government financed state colleges and tax write-offs for mortgage interest, cheap flood insurance for waterfront property owners, lowered capital gains tax rates, etc. In Florida, the State will reimburse you for the cost of a gasoline-powered emergency generator (providing, of course, you can come up with the cash to buy it in the first place). And we all know about subsidies for industry, and for farmers. Especially for farmers. But times are hard, and its getting difficult to keep corporate profits up AND bribe the middle class too. So the gravy train is slowing down. The cash flow is drying up. I guess you could call it trickle-away economics. And they are squealing like piggies. There is all sorts of welfare for the middle class, from private school vouchers to government financed state colleges and tax write-offs for mortgage interest, cheap flood insurance for waterfront property owners, lowered capital gains tax rates, etc. In Florida, the State will reimburse you for the cost of a gasoline-powered emergency generator (providing, of course, you can come up with the cash to buy it in the first place). And we all know about subsidies for industry, and for farmers. Especially for farmers.

But times are hard, and its getting difficult to keep corporate profits up AND bribe the middle class too. So the gravy train is slowing down. The cash flow is drying up. I guess you could call it trickle-away economics. And they are squealing like piggies.

]]> By: bowser https://habitablezone.com/2016/01/24/why-they-insist-on-voting-against-their-own-self-interest/#comment-35381 bowser Mon, 25 Jan 2016 00:32:41 +0000 https://www.habitablezone.com/?p=55234#comment-35381 I think there is an unbelievable enmity for many people to anyone who seems to get something for nothing. School lunches, welfare, medical care, they hate the people who get that. And frankly, when I saw a mother and daughter with welfare credit cards and the mother showing the daughter how to use it I get a little peeved, too. (Mother had a brood with her, daughter looked to be 14, or younger and was clearly pregnant, and both women were accompanied by what looked to be healthy virile men.) Anyway, many of the middle and lower middle class will side with those who would eliminate those benefits. And what they don't realize is that the upper middle and upper class benefit far, far more from government giveaways. One conservative I read was bitching about his kids having to repay student loans. And still he's a staunch, Ayn Rand, do it yourself conservative. I don't understand how people can live with themselves as they advocate one philosophy and live another. It's really a puzzlement. I think there is an unbelievable enmity for many people to anyone who seems to get something for nothing. School lunches, welfare, medical care, they hate the people who get that. And frankly, when I saw a mother and daughter with welfare credit cards and the mother showing the daughter how to use it I get a little peeved, too. (Mother had a brood with her, daughter looked to be 14, or younger and was clearly pregnant, and both women were accompanied by what looked to be healthy virile men.)

Anyway, many of the middle and lower middle class will side with those who would eliminate those benefits. And what they don’t realize is that the upper middle and upper class benefit far, far more from government giveaways.

One conservative I read was bitching about his kids having to repay student loans. And still he’s a staunch, Ayn Rand, do it yourself conservative. I don’t understand how people can live with themselves as they advocate one philosophy and live another. It’s really a puzzlement.

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