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According to the study opinion of 90% of Americans has no impact on goverment (https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/ https://act.represent.us/sign/prob

According to the study opinion of 90% of Americans has no impact on goverment (https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/ https://act.represent.us/sign/problempoll-fba/). Adding to it that the popular opinion itself is shaped by corporations I think focusing on individuals is mostly FUD.

lotsofpulp 4y ago
Suppose all corporations got together and decided to support raising the gas tax to $10 or $20 per gallon. I would bet voters would mobilize in record time to vote out any politicians supporting it. If 90% of Americans sufficiently cared about reducing carbon emissions, car sales would look different.
- neon_electro 4y ago
  If society wasn't as car-dependent as it is for basic survival, car sales would look different. It's not reflective of how much Americans sufficiently care about reducing emissions.
aaronsimpson 4y ago
That Gilens and Page study has been debunked time and time again by various followup studies. Overwhelmingly the American people get their way. If not that, just look at direct polls from sources like Gallup. Even amongst climate-conscious progressives, the will to pay extra for gas or beef to negate climate change just isn't there. Edit: as a test question for anyone who believes this 90% nonsense - can you name a single piece of high-priority, salient legislation (i.e. not an executive order or Supreme Court decision) that a vast majority of Americans didn't want, but that went through anyway because the government did the bidding of the corporations? Overwhelmingly, the reason why we don't get policies like climate change mitigation, universal healthcare, housing, etc. is because Americans are just fundamentally divided on these topics. And where they are somewhat "united" (say, a public option for healthcare), they don't want to increase taxes to pay for it. (High-priority and salient because things like dairy trade policy are probably influenced more by lobbying, but that's because most Americans obviously don't care about dairy trade policy)
- neon_electro 4y ago
  The National Defense Authorization Act? Obviously that answer has nuance and is not saying that the US should go without the spirit of what the NDAA is supposed to do, but in practice...

lotsofpulp 4y ago

Suppose all corporations got together and decided to support raising the gas tax to $10 or $20 per gallon. I would bet voters would mobilize in record time to vote out any politicians supporting it. If 90% of Americans sufficiently cared about reducing carbon emissions, car sales would look different.

neon_electro 4y ago
If society wasn't as car-dependent as it is for basic survival, car sales would look different. It's not reflective of how much Americans sufficiently care about reducing emissions.

aaronsimpson 4y ago

That Gilens and Page study has been debunked time and time again by various followup studies. Overwhelmingly the American people get their way. If not that, just look at direct polls from sources like Gallup. Even amongst climate-conscious progressives, the will to pay extra for gas or beef to negate climate change just isn't there. Edit: as a test question for anyone who believes this 90% nonsense - can you name a single piece of high-priority, salient legislation (i.e. not an executive order or Supreme Court decision) that a vast majority of Americans didn't want, but that went through anyway because the government did the bidding of the corporations? Overwhelmingly, the reason why we don't get policies like climate change mitigation, universal healthcare, housing, etc. is because Americans are just fundamentally divided on these topics. And where they are somewhat "united" (say, a public option for healthcare), they don't want to increase taxes to pay for it. (High-priority and salient because things like dairy trade policy are probably influenced more by lobbying, but that's because most Americans obviously don't care about dairy trade policy)

neon_electro 4y ago
The National Defense Authorization Act? Obviously that answer has nuance and is not saying that the US should go without the spirit of what the NDAA is supposed to do, but in practice...