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Protests come when people are pushed into a corner with little other choice. Participation is more prevalent when people have free time in their lives. Our econ
by dv_dt 9mo ago
Protests come when people are pushed into a corner with little other choice. Participation is more prevalent when people have free time in their lives. Our economics has systematically squeezed free time out in favor of more work to most of our workforce, and particularly hard for young people.
One reason so many local city policies favor the old, is that they're retired and have the time to participate
- eigencoder 9mo agoI don't think economics have squeezed out free time -- phones squeeze out all our free time.
- LunaSea 9mo agoHaving two or three jobs is not really conductive to free time.
- quaverquaver 9mo agoIn the US per official data ~5% have more than one job (and that includes lawyers doing consultancy for example) https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS12026620 https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/LNS12026620
- LunaSea 9mo agoSo that would mean 1 in 10 families that are affected on average. Seems like a lot.
- veidr 9mo agoconcerning
- pocket 9mo agoHmm… 1 in 20 individuals are affected… I get the idea being 2 adults per family, one of them affected, hence 1 in 10 families, but I think its incorrect/misleading (potentially in either direction) to say 1 in 10 families. I haven't looked at the data about how many families are single parent (which could increase the impact per family) OR how many of those 5% identified as working multiple jobs are married (I wouldn't be surprised if more of them are unmarried, since a two parent family with both working one job might be expected to not need the additional jobs).
- frumper 9mo agoThat is a self reported survey of households that doesn't lend itself to capturing all of the people. One, participants need to respond, which a busy and tired person isn't likely to do. Two, it doesn't define job, so if you don't think of your side hustle/gig work as a job, then you won't say it is. In the survey, if you did answer, and you do have 2 jobs, but you didn't work both in the exact week that you were surveyed, then you also aren't counted. IRS data, ADP private payroll estimates are much higher, but have their own issues.
- jjk166 9mo agoBeing on your phone doesn't stop you from waiting in line at the polling booth. A job does.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- FeloniousHam 9mo agoWhen in American history have we had more free time for civic participation?
- t-3 9mo agoProbably never, except maybe during the period when only white male landowners could vote and so the "we" was a much smaller and wealthier group. Voter turnout is pretty high these days though. https://www.electproject.org/national-1789-present https://www.electproject.org/national-1789-present
- veidr 9mo agoI think the problem is more like: When in American history have we had more things that are more engaging¹ competing with civic participation for our free time? ¹: and I think the terrifying answer might be: LOL, never, so? Hurry up and die.
- supertrope 9mo agoJuly 2020.
- GeoAtreides 9mo agoaround May, 1886 and a lot more after
- danaris 9mo agoIn the latter half of the 20th century, while many things were much worse than they are today, it was genuinely possible to support a family on a single minimum-wage job in many parts of the country. Now, that doesn't mean that everyone used the extra time for civic participation, but when you compare that to today, when far too many people have to work two or three jobs per adult just to keep the lights on, I think it's fair to say that there was more free time.
- ryandrake 9mo agoYoung people seem to have plenty of free time to march around the streets protesting, chanting and banging drums (which has pretty much zero effect on policy), but they aren't able to find the time to attend a city council meeting, or even vote, for that matter.
- _DeadFred_ 9mo agoThis. I fought against a zoning exception (ironic comment) that would allow an asphalt plant near my children's school. When we showed up at meetings, they were canceled and rescheduled at different times for 'reasons'. I managed to get people there every time, but it was tough for parents to get there, and it seemed like the process had been weaponized against our participation.
- sharts 9mo agoProtests are also largely useless.
- deleted 9mo ago[deleted]
- danaris 9mo agoThis is status quo propaganda. Note that I'm not saying you, yourself, are a proponent of the status quo, deliberately spreading propaganda. But protests are absolutely not useless. "waaaah they don't change Trump's mind after a single protest waaaaah" of course not. That's not what they're there to do. That's the win condition, not the only move in the game.* Protests have a variety of important effects, but let's just focus on two of the big ones, which are closely linked: 1) They tell the other people who disagree with what is going on that they are not alone. That there are others like them out there, and that if they do try to do something (whether that's go to a protest themselves, call their congresspeople, or whatever), it won't be just shouting into the void. 2) They tell the people who agree with what is going on that this is not over. They can't just expect to be greeted as liberators; there are people in their own hometown who think that this is not OK, it shouldn't be allowed to continue, and anyone who supports it can expect at least a side-eye at the supermarket, if not much more serious social shunning. And no: neither of these lead directly to a change in the policies that are being protested. But that doesn't mean that they're useless, any more than it's useless to, say, release wolves into Yellowstone, if what you care about are some of the myriad downstream effects of a trophic cascade. * Not, I would note very firmly, that it's a game. This is merely a convenient metaphor.
- insane_dreamer 9mo agoNot when they’re accompanied with large scale strikes as Europeans have found.
- systemtest 9mo agoYou mean French.
- ryandrake 9mo ago
- joquarky 9mo agoIf the economy continues in it's current vector, there will be a lot more unemployed people with idle hands available to do interesting things.