One of the most effective campaign slogans in recent memory and helped a young upstart, Bill Clinton to usurp a sitting president. If there is any one thing that touches and affects each and every American, it is the economy. It seems so obviously central to each of our well being. Yet, here we are in the most vibrant economical climate that I have known in my lifetime. People are working. Welfare rolls are dropping. Why do we seem so intent on crushing what is working? Is political gain truly more important to the average American than his ability to make ends meet? I feel as though I have transported to some odd alternate universe these last few years.
I think the economy is foremost in the minds for some Americans at least to some degree. Recent polls suggest that health care, climate change, and even student loan debt rank high among the voting population. You have made it abundantly clear in post after post that the economy is your paramount consideration when considering the candidate. I understand that as a small business owner, your fortunes rise and fall with the economy. So it isn't unusual for people in your situation to focus so myopically on one aspect of the entire breadth of political spectrum. However, the vast majority of us are not small business owners by a long shot. Many of us have to consider more than just the economy, as important as it is, because while the economy affects us all, there are significant political implications for the rest of us that don't necessary directly depend on the state of the economy. Who cares about the economy if your home just burned down due to the effects of climate change? Who cares if the economy is strong if you and your family have no access to affordable health care? In recent decades, the old adage that a rising tide lifts all boats hasn't necessary rang true for most Americans at the bottom. There have been slight increases but nothing on par with what the wealthiest Americans have experienced in that same period. What good does it do the average American if their wages go up 2% while their health care costs, their housing costs, and their food costs rise 10% in the same period? The old adage that it is the economy stupid is a bit dated these days with so many other problems to consider. I would suggest an alternative slogan such as the French adopted during the French Revolution, "Eat the Rich" by Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Which was abbreviated from, "When the people shall have nothing more to eat, they will eat the rich".
Joe, you write a persuasive argument and I am confident you can cite polls, data and figures that I cannot. What I do feel confident about is being a bit more in touch with the real average American. The two young men I have recently hired could no more care about climate change than the man on the moon. However, you make them fill their gas tanks at four bucks a gallon again and that they will take note of. They have one goal and that is to provide for their young families. I am footing their health care costs and yes they are currently astronomical due in part to political tampering. You may be right. Young people are groomed these days to be climate activists. But I do know this. Once they can't make ends meet, you can bet this whole climate issue will be furthest from their minds. Level the blame wherever you wish, however the proliferation of wealth does make these wheels turn and offers me the opportunity to create two new well paying jobs where they did not exist before.
The health of the economy is fundamental to every aspect of public policy. A bad economy leads to more environmental damage. People will not put up draconian public policy, like the Green New Deal, if their jobs are gone and they can’t feed their family. Some of the worst polluters in the world have been Communist nations because they need shortcuts to provide basic services. The world and warmed and cooled many times during its existence. Climatologists have pointed out that it was actually warmer around the year 1000 than it is now. Since then it cooled down until the 1500s when it was relatively cool. Then another warm-up began. The trouble with the global warming stuff is that a lot of the people who go on and on about are leftists who are looking to use it as way to expand government and give it more control over people. Many of the scientists who push the concept are on government payrolls. Even some in the UN have stated that one of goals of climate change policy is to re-distribute wealth from rich countries to poor counties. All of this makes that whole climate change argument suspect.
