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How politics became a contest dominated by two kinds of elite

mensetmanusman 5y ago
“ Our analysis showed that in every referendum held in the European Union since the 1970s, low-income and less well-educated voters have converged in expressing their opposition to further supranational integration. In some sense, this is not surprising. In a union focused almost exclusively on the liberalisation of human and capital flows and the imposition of stringent fiscal rules, there is little to gain for those workers who most suffer from the shocks induced by the unregulated global capitalism of the 21st century. ” The gains of globalization go to the rich by default. No western country has yet determined how to benefit the poor with the productivity gains.
- gumby 5y ago
  > No western country has yet determined how to benefit the poor with the productivity gains. The argument has been that the poor benefit from access to the less expensive goods that result. Which of course they do. However that argument is clearly woefully insufficient…yet the consequences of that insufficiency are discussed as if they were discrete phenomena.
  - Clubber 5y ago
    Unfortunately though they are less expensive, they are typically of lesser quality and need to be replaced more often. I don't know if that has reached the threshold to wipe out that gain or not.
  - mensetmanusman 5y ago
    Food is cheaper, but that has resulted in obesity. Housing is more expensive, and that has resulted in homelessness. Healthcare is also more expensive. TVs are cheaper, but that has lowered IQs and has second order effects.
ZeroGravitas 5y ago
I'd be dubious of this unless the paper examines age as a confounding factor. Retired people can show up as "poor" (particularly poor old people) and as mentioned in the article, didn't go on to higher education as much as later generations. If that's the case we can just wait for them to die to see a shift in politics. https://www.statista.com/statistics/520954/brexit-votes-by-age/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/520954/brexit-votes-by-a... https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2019/03/18/is-brexit-a-contest-between-low-earning-leavers-and-high-earning-remainers/ https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2019/03/18/is-brexit-a-contes...

“ Our analysis showed that in every referendum held in the European Union since the 1970s, low-income and less well-educated voters have converged in expressing their opposition to further supranational integration. In some sense, this is not surprising. In a union focused almost exclusively on the liberalisation of human and capital flows and the imposition of stringent fiscal rules, there is little to gain for those workers who most suffer from the shocks induced by the unregulated global capitalism of the 21st century. ” The gains of globalization go to the rich by default. No western country has yet determined how to benefit the poor with the productivity gains.

gumby 5y ago
> No western country has yet determined how to benefit the poor with the productivity gains. The argument has been that the poor benefit from access to the less expensive goods that result. Which of course they do. However that argument is clearly woefully insufficient…yet the consequences of that insufficiency are discussed as if they were discrete phenomena.
- Clubber 5y ago
  Unfortunately though they are less expensive, they are typically of lesser quality and need to be replaced more often. I don't know if that has reached the threshold to wipe out that gain or not.
- mensetmanusman 5y ago
  Food is cheaper, but that has resulted in obesity. Housing is more expensive, and that has resulted in homelessness. Healthcare is also more expensive. TVs are cheaper, but that has lowered IQs and has second order effects.

ZeroGravitas 5y ago

I'd be dubious of this unless the paper examines age as a confounding factor. Retired people can show up as "poor" (particularly poor old people) and as mentioned in the article, didn't go on to higher education as much as later generations. If that's the case we can just wait for them to die to see a shift in politics. https://www.statista.com/statistics/520954/brexit-votes-by-age/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/520954/brexit-votes-by-a... https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2019/03/18/is-brexit-a-contest-between-low-earning-leavers-and-high-earning-remainers/ https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/brexit/2019/03/18/is-brexit-a-contes...