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Grex > Agora56 > #106: The Kludge Report - Part II: If you’re happy and you know it | |
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klg
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The Kludge Report - Part II: If you’re happy and you know it
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Feb 15 20:09 UTC 2006 |
Pew Research Survey (2006): Want to be happier?? Be a Republican!!
. . . Some 45% of all Republicans report being very happy, compared
with just 30% of Democrats and 29% of independents. This finding has
also been around a long time; Republicans have been happier than
Democrats every year since the General Social Survey began taking its
measurements in 1972. Pew surveys since 1991 also show a partisan gap
on happiness; the current 16 percentage point gap is among the largest
in Pew surveys, rivaled only by a 17 point gap in February 2003.
Could it be that Republicans are so much happier now because their
party controls all the levers of federal power? Not likely. Since
1972, the GOP happiness edge over Democrats has ebbed and flowed in a
pattern that appears unrelated to which party is in political power. . .
Of course, there's a more obvious explanation for the Republicans'
happiness edge. Republicans tend to have more money than Democrats,
and -- as we've already discovered -- people who have more money tend
to be happier.
But even this explanation only goes so far. If one controls for
household income, Republicans still hold a significant edge: that is,
poor Republicans are happier than poor Democrats; middle-income
Republicans are happier than middle-income Democrats, and rich
Republicans are happier than rich Democrats.
Might ideology be the key? It's true that conservatives, who are more
likely to be Republican, are happier than liberals, who are more likely
to be Democrats. But even controlling for this ideological factor, a
significant partisan gap remains. Conservative Republicans are happier
than conservative Democrats, and moderate/liberal Republicans are
happier than liberal Democrats. . . .
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| 23 responses total. |
tod
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response 1 of 23:
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Feb 15 20:23 UTC 2006 |
Still chasing the Horatio Alger dream of being a pseudo rags to riches d00d,
eh? That's the funny plague of all the GOP types I meet is that they all like
to think they're jetsetting richboys. The truth is that they are mostly just
narcissistic middle class yuppies one or two years shy of the great energy
crisis depression. Enjoy your decoder ring from the Nazi party while you can,
brownshirt.
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nharmon
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response 2 of 23:
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Feb 15 20:27 UTC 2006 |
I'm an example of rags to slightly better rags. :)
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tod
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response 3 of 23:
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Feb 15 20:32 UTC 2006 |
I'm always curious how it would be if there were a Holocaust but instead of
Jews that it were corporate loving Republicans. How many of them would be
assisted in hiding in attics or fake walls amongst the great unwashed of this
country?
I'm sure the first response would be "But that already happened in the
Socialist movements in China and Russia" except those were doctors and
teachers and here we're just talking about party line toeing lemmings that
consider themselves conservative because they believe their mealticket is
around the corner at the cost of young lives in frivolous wars.
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nharmon
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response 4 of 23:
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Feb 15 20:38 UTC 2006 |
I hate socialists and corporations. :)
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rcurl
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response 5 of 23:
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Feb 15 20:51 UTC 2006 |
It may be true in the sense that Republicans on the average have minds
closed to those ideas that might be disturbing, such as global warming,
resource depletion, loss of species, the poor, unemployment, company
malfeasance, etc, so of course they will be happier.
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nharmon
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response 6 of 23:
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Feb 15 20:57 UTC 2006 |
Ignorance is bliss. There are psychological experiments that prove this.
There is nothing wrong with ignorance either.
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marcvh
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response 7 of 23:
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Feb 15 21:01 UTC 2006 |
I haven't heard about your claim that there is nothing wrong with ignorance,
which is fine.
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nharmon
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response 8 of 23:
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Feb 15 21:08 UTC 2006 |
Rephrased: People who are ignorant aren't necessarily bad people.
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tod
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response 9 of 23:
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Feb 15 21:08 UTC 2006 |
A corporation only exists because it piggybacked its rights as a "person"
using the 14th Amendment which was intended for free slaves to invoke.
In essence, we've got a bunch of psychopaths(corporations) running amok in
our society.
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nharmon
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response 10 of 23:
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Feb 15 21:08 UTC 2006 |
We need a death penalty for corporations. :)
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marcvh
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response 11 of 23:
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Feb 15 21:11 UTC 2006 |
Maybe we should eliminate state-funded education! Then we would have more
ignorant people!
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tod
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response 12 of 23:
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Feb 15 21:13 UTC 2006 |
That's my point. Try prosecuting a corporation like you would a person and
you'll see where our government gets most of its initiatives. It is much
easier to kill a few million people as a corporation than it
is as an individual person.
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tod
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response 13 of 23:
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Feb 15 21:14 UTC 2006 |
re #11 slipped
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drew
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response 14 of 23:
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Feb 15 22:58 UTC 2006 |
Ignnorance is at least cureable.
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crimson
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response 15 of 23:
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Feb 15 23:03 UTC 2006 |
Not always.
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gull
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response 16 of 23:
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Feb 16 00:50 UTC 2006 |
I wonder if anyone has done a study like this that, instead of using
party affiliation, used political leanings? It seems to me that the
results would probably be a curve with the peak of happiness centered
on people whose political views correspond with the way the government
is being run, and decreasing happiness on either side.
Comparing "conservative Democrats" to "conservative Republicans"
doesn't really say much because those two groups still have very
different views. A conservative Democrat may be to the left of even a
liberal Republican.
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klg
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response 17 of 23:
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Feb 16 02:54 UTC 2006 |
DB suggests: "the results would probably be a curve with the peak of
happiness centered on people whose political views correspond with the
way the government is being run"
BZZZZZZZZZZZT. Wrong again. Here's what Pew says"
"Could it be that Republicans are so much happier now because their
party controls all the levers of federal power? Not likely. Since
1972, the GOP happiness edge over Democrats has ebbed and flowed in a
pattern that appears unrelated to which party is in political power"
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happyboy
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response 18 of 23:
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Feb 16 09:18 UTC 2006 |
the republicans simply lied like they always do, brownshirt.
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