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The dissonance between Washington and Main St is very visible even for the unfocused of the observers. I have problem with your second point, which seems to be

by sremani 13y ago

The dissonance between Washington and Main St is very visible even for the unfocused of the observers. I have problem with your second point, which seems to be coming out of "fox news" playbook. Rich people are likely motivated - I do not know how a person sorting the labels in Walmart at 3 am in the morning (certainly not in my book) is not "motivated" and the fact that most Rich are "sperm lottery" winners (unlike the self-made businessman myth right tries to pedal), but its the other way round the impediments for rich motivated person are few compared to impediments for poor motivated person. The poor motivated person makes a placard and goes to his congressman, where the rich motivated person donates the max the congressman and would get 30 minutes of Congressman's time during fund raising or some other "social" event.

dang 13y ago
> The dissonance between Washington and Main St Without disagreeing with your comment, may I gently suggest (to all HNers) that ideologically charged catch-phrases are best avoided here. As we all know, this kind of thread is sensitive to getting derailed—or perhaps one should say railed, onto predictable, predefined tracks that go straight to the shouting matches. Those are exciting, but low-quality agitation. On HN we want light, not heat, and experience shows you can't have both—not on the internet anyway. Because our brains are all programmed to react reflexively to these phrases—whether positively or negatively doesn't matter—I think we should strive to edit them out of our comments. The signal/noise ratio will be higher for it, and the risk of sparking a flamewar lower.
- sremani 13y ago
  I agree with you. I understand that the post has to be substantial and devoid of "reflexive phrases". At the risk of getting down-voted, growing up (not in the US) I used to watch construction workers - a woman with a toddler few feet from construction working from early morning 5a.m. to 9p.m. People living in squalor making clothes and dyes and giving it all while doing it. So for the narrative of "rich people are more motivated than poor" is repugnant and would not let that statement go unchallenged. I have no light to shine - I live under the sun along with the light, I will take the heat.

by sremani 13y ago

dang 13y ago

> The dissonance between Washington and Main St Without disagreeing with your comment, may I gently suggest (to all HNers) that ideologically charged catch-phrases are best avoided here. As we all know, this kind of thread is sensitive to getting derailed—or perhaps one should say railed, onto predictable, predefined tracks that go straight to the shouting matches. Those are exciting, but low-quality agitation. On HN we want light, not heat, and experience shows you can't have both—not on the internet anyway. Because our brains are all programmed to react reflexively to these phrases—whether positively or negatively doesn't matter—I think we should strive to edit them out of our comments. The signal/noise ratio will be higher for it, and the risk of sparking a flamewar lower.

sremani 13y ago
I agree with you. I understand that the post has to be substantial and devoid of "reflexive phrases". At the risk of getting down-voted, growing up (not in the US) I used to watch construction workers - a woman with a toddler few feet from construction working from early morning 5a.m. to 9p.m. People living in squalor making clothes and dyes and giving it all while doing it. So for the narrative of "rich people are more motivated than poor" is repugnant and would not let that statement go unchallenged. I have no light to shine - I live under the sun along with the light, I will take the heat.