some sort of maxwell demon type thingy. Although preferably it's just a movement.

People rarely agree on what the maxim is though.

For example, if I choose not to vote, people will say “what if everyone did that?” where “that” = not voting.

But I could say “that” = thinking critically about my options and choosing the option that is best for me and the country. Yeah, we should hope everyone does that!

Yeah, it's not a perfect moral system, just the closest I know of to what Sklansky was thinking of.

Was DS thinking along the lines of they should all do it. I thouight it was more more wtf if they all do,

A bit like it dont matter if I pollute the environment carelessly. But what if everyone does?

Good point. But then apply it to 3rd parties

If everyone did that, things like a government that takes climate change seriously might become possible, where they are now impossible.

If you will vote Biden (or Trump) literally no matter what he does, why would they ever consider your interests, or the interests of anyone other than themselves and other elites?

Anyway, it is kind of interesting that people who know neither party represents them choose not voting over 3rd party.

because you vote in primaries as well and not only primaries for POTUS.

even if you credibly pre-commit to vote the Democratic or republican candidate for POTUS whomever he is, your vote still matters to them for primaries, which is where the real election is in many (most?) districts/states.

This might be true, though it could be changing. In the past, when our leaders massacred civilians, the MSM covered it up. Now Twitter is crammed with pictures of murdered families and we hear about what's happening from first hand accounts and it seems like people care a bit more.

Moreover the culture war issues also distract from material issues at home.

We have the most expensive hc system in the world. It's also terrible to use, ineffective and thousands per year die for lack of hc. This is all by design. Our rulers want it that way and fixing it is completely off the table.

You CAN argue about who may play women's sports, and even vote for candidates with a wide range of views on these things and see real policy differences.

You can see a shift in first Republicans, then Democrats to emphasis on these issues and ID politics, as their material policies become more hostile to 90%+ of the population. Like, the DNC would declare Dwight Eisenhower an unelectable communist today.

You're right though. These issues do push people's buttons and get them fired up. It would be interesting to see what happens if we built up an immunity to this.

Your hc system is ****ed up, but that's for the benefit of the top 25-30%, not the 1%.

The sooner you realize America is a playground for the upper middle class, not necessarily for billionaires, the sooner you understand why the problem isn't fixable.

Because there are 80-100m people benefiting from the system more than any other human being ever did in history.

Making 130k as an household in many places in the USA is a really good life.

And the system is built for those people to flourish. And they vote the system and they apply the system every day.

The worst thing Trump did to democrats was capping SALT deductions. That was felt more than any purported human right violation of foreigners (that nobody gives an actual **** about) or "dismantling democracy" or everythibg else.

That was 5, 10, 20k more in taxes for households making 150, 200, 300 per year (in expensive places).

That's why the coastal elites actually hate him lol.

Enter that mind frame, understand people will literally let you kill whomever if they get a tax deduction, and you understand america

Lot of truth to this. Limo libs (or I guess range rover libs) and cons play a big role. They're fine starting wars for WS as long as they get a nice talk about how they are good people for being not racist or Christian respectively.

I spent my 20s and early 30s broke. Now I'm in the class you mentioned and, yeah, it's pretty great. While being broke/poor is very hard here.

However, I'd say while HC is a nightmare for lower income people, it's still a massive PITA when you have a few bucks.

E.g. recently got 3 referrals to specialists from my general practitioner. All 3 canceled on me for different bureaucratic reasons. I had to call my GP 3 times to get a call back about new referals... etc.

Finally got to a dermatologist to have a couple spots checked. They noticed some chest acne I didn't care about. Offered me drugs, ok sure... long story short, I realized they were upselling me in an attempt to get me to come back every 6 months forever to get new acne drugs, including antibiotics, at $140 a trip out of pocket.

I can see how they've built that practice into a franchise.

Hcare is insanely good a tad over your current "level" from what you describe. For example, you completly disregard out of pocket, in the sense that you fully expect to cap them every year anyway. And you pay them with tax-exempt income.

Upper middle class households start the year with (say) 4k max deductible and 16k max out of pocket for a family of 4 (employer-sponsored decent plan that qualifies for HSA). They account 4k as already spent, with HSA, so pre-tax (so more like 2.5k actual real dollars spent, less if the HSA is earning money which it supposedly is, all untaxed). They consider they will pay decent amount of copays.

They religiously cap HSA contributions every year they can as that's the golden tax exemption, triple lock: you contribute with pre-tax income, capital gains aren't taxed, and you take money out of it with no taxes (for healthcare).

There are 35M HSA, covering like double the amount of people. Most people just pay deductibles/copay with pre-tax income, some were smart/savvy enough to start accumulating in the HSA before the need to take out of it was guaranteed every year and they have like a roth IRA financed with gross income right there and they can sometimes pay deductible just with the (tax free) capital gains.

They get golden level treatment, accept any and all suggestions of extra exams and so on, so are treated far better by specialists, get very easy appointments almost never with a queue, single room if hospitalized and so on and on.

What americans in silicon valley with good plans get, here in Italy only a few politicians / VIP can get, unless they go full private and pay a gabazillion per day, and even in that case, only in a few places all across italy (or at that point you go to switzerland like many people with money do).

That kind of healthcare is either unavailable in most of europe locally even if you have the money, or costs like 50k++ per year. It is actually subsidized by the rest of the population in the USA, as the rest still pay insane insurance premia (either them or their employers), really high deductible and co-pay, and get shitty service more often than not on top of that.