My thought here is that there is a significant lack of outrage in weak wage growth and income disparities because the data is not relatable enough. There's certainly some protest at the most abhorrent levels of minimum wage meeting acceptable levels for a living, but shouldn't everyone from the upper to lower class be up in arms if there is such a favoritism toward executives and shareholders? Maybe something along the lines as showing what normal wage growth in tangible quality of live areas (e.g. this is the home you could afford) would look like for certain income levels might be a better way to explain this.
pmoriarty|7 years ago
Most people are just too tired, too busy with their own lives, too disillusioned with idealistic promises of change, and too fearful of repercussions to try to rock the boat unless they're starving and have nothing to lose.
As long as they've got their bread and circuses, nothing will substantively change.
Even if/when it does change, history shows that we'll probably just wind up with a new boss who's the same as the old boss.
msbarnett|7 years ago
But history doesn’t show anything of the sort? History instead shows a clear path to how Europe ended up with the bottom 50% ending up with a much larger portion of wealth than the top 1%.
What’s remarkable here is not how impossible change is, but how Americans have utterly resigned themselves to the supposed unchanging inevitability of their current situation despite clear evidence that alternative modes of operating aren’t just possible but clearly exist right now.
America’s primary problem with change seems first and foremost to be its own fatalistic delusion that being any other way is impossible.
ddingus|7 years ago
Personify these things so people can internalize them, better understand what they are experiencing and why.
Most will find it unacceptable, as they should.
Honestly, most of this is a priority problem. And informed people will be a higher priority than uninformed ones are.
davidw|7 years ago
misja111|7 years ago