2024 Elections Thread

[jimbogumbo]

Haitians eating dogs = Orange man bad!

dismalest: Your posts are often informative for me, but this remark is really trollish and serves no other point. The effects of Trump and Vance's amplifying what was started with a fourth hand Facebook post has been multiple bomb threats to schools, hospitals and public events. That is not "Orange man bad", that is just demonstrably bad.

[Sun_Worshiper]

Another reason for those at the bottom to vote for Trump on immigration. Immigrants push down unskilled workers' wages.

Intuitive, but is it actually true? Evidence is murky at best (see work from Michael Clemens).

It's murky for economy wide average wages, clearly because some immigrants are high skill. It's not murky for low skilled wages.

I do know of one established theory that claims after a fall in the unskilled wage it eventually rises again to its old level. But that doesn't happen instantaneously, so there is lost earnings even after the rise.

Inflation? Surely second order. Inflation is made by the Federal Reserve, aided by the Treasury. Inflation seems to be the flavor-du-jour.

Haitians eating dogs = Orange man bad!

Actually it is murky for low skilled workers too. Immigrants can compete for low skill jobs, thereby decreasing wages (although various studies find little to no effect), but their presence can also create new labor market opportunities that can grow wages - including for low skill workers. Read the empirical studies and you'll see that the evidence is mixed and effect sizes are small.

And yes, it is bad to make up and amplify racist conspiracy theories. Even you should be able to understand that.

No, I read a survey, and that's plenty. The theory in much of this literature is, well, murky, to put it kindly.

It's taking fewer and fewer return posts for you to get personal. Well done.

It is an empirical question, so we have to turn to the empirical literature to answer it. Empirical econ literature is crappy for various reasons, but we have to make do.

And I'm just responding to your message board persona. If you put out a certain kind of energy, then you should expect to get it back.

[jimbogumbo]

A major party candidate for President is pitching this. It is really hard to believe. Martin Shrkeli even shows up in it!!

https://financialpost.com/fp-finance/cryptocurrency/trump-crypto-guru-self-described-dirtbag-of-internet

[ciao_yall]

[...]

 (Well, maybe Syria, Venezuela, and Haiti aren't too worried about illegal immigration.)

Places with very successful emigration policies.

As for the U.S., as pointed out by the U.S. Census Bureau and researchers like Matthew Desmond, the official poverty rate has ranged between 11% and 15% of the population since the mid-1960s. We like to keep some people poor and invent policies to achieve this goal. Unfortunately these folks don't want to pick vegetables, butcher cows, or nail shingles, so we have to convince other people to cross our borders illegally.

France,Germany and Sweden and others are dealing with racism and Islamophobia.

Uh, maybe I'm missing the obvious, but I don't see how prejudice in these European countries connects to the 2024 elections, poverty, or immigration policies in the U.S.

Because the issues are not related to immigration policy or a social safety net.

These issues are caused by racist natives.

[nebo113]

Trump says he will be protector of women.  Please excuse me while I go vomit.

[evil_physics_witchcraft]

Trump says he will be protector of women.  Please excuse me while I go vomit.

That gives me the ick too.

[jimbogumbo]

Trump says he will be protector of women.  Please excuse me while I go vomit.

That gives me the ick too.

Alexandra Petri also: https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2024/09/25/trump-abortion-policy-women-support-satire/

[AmLitHist]

Trump says he will be protector of women.  Please excuse me while I go vomit.

That gives me the ick too.

But who's going to protect us from him?

[jimbogumbo]

If you haven't heard about Trump's Town Hall last night, lucky you. He has truly lost it. Alexandra Petri has a great satirical review, and here is a link to actual god-awful video and audio. As others have said, I almost felt sorry for Kristi Noem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W5byWvLidg

[pgher]

If you haven't heard about Trump's Town Hall last night, lucky you. He has truly lost it. Alexandra Petri has a great satirical review, and here is a link to actual god-awful video and audio. As others have said, I almost felt sorry for Kristi Noem: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W5byWvLidg

We may have reached the point where it is impossible to satirize Trump. You can't make this stuff up.

[Sun_Worshiper]

It is truly stunning that 46 percent of the electorate will probably vote for this guy

[dismalist]

After the uprising of the 17th of June [1953]
The Secretary of the Writers' Union
Had leaflets distributed on the Stalinallee [East Berlin]
Stating that the people
Had forfeited the confidence of the government
And could only win it back
By increased work quotas. Would it not in that case be simpler
for the government   
To dissolve the people
And elect another?   
--Bert Brecht, The Solution, 1953. Published 1959.

[little bongo]

Regarding the 46 million or so people "voting for this guy," I turn to the words of George Carlin: "Never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups."

Yes, I know it's condescending to lump all Trump voters together like that, but I'll admit, I've been visiting right sites where the only demons are "wokeism," "DEI," and "neoliberalism," and I've been reading news with different perspectives such as The Free Press, and I put forward my question: "What does Harris mean to you that you're still all in on the convicted felon-fraud-rapist-bigoted guy? What makes her worse?" I've only found three possibilities:

1) Fear of wokeism, DEI, and/or neoliberalism: two mainly useful tools (that can be misused) and one inchoate philosophy. Got it.
2) Related to number 1): Harris is a communist. Or too far left. Or not that bright.
3) The Trump years of presidency were great.

As I can't buy either of those ideas, be they fully formed, half-baked, or simmering somewhere in the seething stew of the pit of humankind's fear and ignorance, I guess I'm still voting for Harris. Plus I sent her about $30 altogether, so there's that.

[spork]

[...]

"What does Harris mean to you that you're still all in on the convicted felon-fraud-rapist-bigoted guy? What makes her worse?" I've only found three possibilities:

1) Fear of wokeism, DEI, and/or neoliberalism: two mainly useful tools (that can be misused) and one inchoate philosophy. Got it.
2) Related to number 1): Harris is a communist. Or too far left. Or not that bright.
3) The Trump years of presidency were great.

[...]

authoritarian cognitive predisposition

[little bongo]

Thanks, Spork! I think you've cleared that up for me.