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Bernie Sanders' 404 page

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Re: Bernie Sanders' 404 page

#201

Post by tmaly »

malkia wrote: post #158
TimJRobinson wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who was born in Australia and now lives in Amsterdam I feel like he's the most sane politician in America. I still don't understand why Americans are so insistent on keeping their "Bad for the people, good for business" policies. If you're in the 1% sure that makes sense, but for everyone else life is so much nicer with free healthcare, good vacation time, maternity leave, good public transport, proper pri…

A lot of my bulgarian friends, and others, living here in America are thinking that taxes, free schools, even police, firefighting, etc. are just things that should go away. Essentially you have to pay, and be a "share-holder" in everything. You should be on top of things everywhere, etc. etc. And someone recently posted this on his fb page: "If a businessman makes a mistake, he suffers the consequences. If a bureauc…

This is a battle of power between the federal level and the state level. With more power centered at the state level (distributed), it would be less likely that everyone would suffer across all states. Look at policies such as "No Child Left Behind" act, it applies a one size fits all law to all schools. It has its problems, and all schools across the country suffer because it is applied at the federal level.

Re: Bernie Sanders' 404 page

#202

Post by kbenson »

gjm11 wrote: post #189
hackuser wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A counter-example: Cities are much more diverse and much more liberal than rural areas.

The slightly bigger picture: People become less liberal when they are aware of the existence of other people Not Like Them with whom they're sharing a country, but become more liberal when they actually interact with those people. (This is conjecture, but it seems awfully plausible and explains both the observations here.)

I think that makes sense.

When another group with (possibly) different norms has no affect on you, it's easy to ignore them.

When that group can exert some effect on you, but the effect is unknown, people get scared, and act accordingly. This is exacerbated by people that like attention and/or power that will stoke these fears to further their own agenda.

When that group is finally encountered, often there's understanding, a willingness to compromise where needed from both parties, and as the unknown subsides, so does much of the fear (and the power that grants those that use fear).

Re: Bernie Sanders' 404 page

#203

Post by gjm11 »

eli_gottlieb wrote: post #152
pweissbrod wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thinking back to the 2012 election, the sentiment of reducing government/cutting taxes in this country is palpably strong. The word "socialist" itself gradually became established as an anti-american insult. Republicans worked hard to place this label on obama as an affront to american freedom reminiscent of communism. Bernie Sanders is a self-described socialist. His ideals dont align with the prevailing american va…

>Bernie Sanders is a self-described socialist. His ideals dont align with the prevailing american values. Just because you told all the socialists in the USA that we're unpatriotic traitors and should shut the hell up, doesn't mean we stopped actually existing. And now we've got a candidate who stands for our views.

No, it doesn't mean that there are no socialists in the US. But if the people of the US, as a whole, have by whatever means come to hate and fear socialists and socialism, then someone who's willing to describe himself as a socialist is not likely to do well in a US general election.

Re: Bernie Sanders' 404 page

#204

Post by quotedmycode »

I've been following him since I took the 'isidewith' quiz. I hadn't even heard of him before, but he's 96% compatible with my stances.

Wouldn't it be nice if everyone instead of voting for a certain candidate, voted on the issues, and the candidate who voted most like the population would win... and their votes would be made public.

Re: Bernie Sanders' 404 page

#205

Post by keithpeter »

alwaysAttending wrote: post #151
TimJRobinson wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone who was born in Australia and now lives in Amsterdam I feel like he's the most sane politician in America. I still don't understand why Americans are so insistent on keeping their "Bad for the people, good for business" policies. If you're in the 1% sure that makes sense, but for everyone else life is so much nicer with free healthcare, good vacation time, maternity leave, good public transport, proper pri…

Part of it has to do with xenophobia and racism. Social Safety Net policy was more popular back when blacks were excluded. Throw in minorities, and people start singing a different tune. It's not like Europe is immune from this either. This is basically the platform of UKIP and the National Front. USA is much more diverse and has to deal with these issues up front. Except in Vermont, where the populace is 95% white.…

"USA is much more diverse and has to deal with these issues up front."

What metric of diversity? UK is pretty diverse in larger cities.

Re: Bernie Sanders' 404 page

#206

Post by ohitsdom »

quotedmycode wrote: post #204

I've been following him since I took the 'isidewith' quiz. I hadn't even heard of him before, but he's 96% compatible with my stances. Wouldn't it be nice if everyone instead of voting for a certain candidate, voted on the issues, and the candidate who voted most like the population would win... and their votes would be made public.

A blind vote. I can dig it.

Re: Bernie Sanders' 404 page

#207

Post by ZenoArrow »

sssilver wrote: post #140
oluwie wrote: post #120

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with the U.S. and why universal health care potentially wouldn't work is in terms of scale. The U.S. has over 300M people living in it, over 8x as much as the most populous European country. We also have a history of hating and evading taxes at all costs (Boston Tea Party). I'm not saying it can't work but the economics gets truly tricky when you're dealing with a country that big.

Only I'd argue that at that scale, if you can make a system work for 80 million people, you can probably make it work for 300.

Plus the US has got over 4x the GDP of Germany ($17,418,925 vs. $3,859,547, according to an IMF report from 2014), so it's not like it can't afford it, sufficient funds exist in the system.

Re: Bernie Sanders' 404 page

#208

Post by p_eter_p »

javert wrote: post #159
res0nat0r wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of America is for the ACA, but against Obamacare, it all depends on how you phrase the question. The issue is that most of America isn't represented when it comes time to vote, only a small subset of people do, and those who do are not going to be voting for Sanders when it comes time to choose which Democrat to get behind.

> Most of America is for the ACA, but against Obamacare, it all depends on how you phrase the question. Citation needed. I can't believe that without some kind of evidence. I can believe that the wording of the question matters, but not that it's "ACA" vs. "Obamacare."

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2013/09/27/poll-obamaca...

Re: Bernie Sanders' 404 page

#209

Post by kbenson »

grecy wrote: post #183
slg wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are asking me to defend a point that I disagree with, but as the argument goes, you pay for them regardless. Because these type of things are provided for the government, it means they are funded by tax dollars. I am therefore in a way participating in them because I have to pay for them. If I don't want 4 weeks of vacation, why should I pay for everyone else to get 4 weeks of vacation?

> If I don't want 4 weeks of vacation, why should I pay for everyone else to get 4 weeks of vacation? You want to pay for things like that because it makes your society stronger and healthier overall. You already pay for everyone to use the police, jails, firemen, roads, sidewalks, parks, libraries, courts, etc. etc. even though you probably don't use them, or use them frequently. Why do you pay for other people to u…

> That's just one example, but you need to stop thinking about "me, me, me" and think "us, us, us"

I like how that can work to further your point whether you read is as "us" or "U.S."

Re: Bernie Sanders' 404 page

#210

Post by caffeinewriter »

TimJRobinson wrote: post #134
philangist wrote: post #6

I don't follow politics at all, but the more I read and hear about Bernie Sanders the more I like him. I'm sure we've got a few political experts on Hacker News so I'd love to hear if you guys think he actually has any chance of winning the presidency.

As someone who was born in Australia and now lives in Amsterdam I feel like he's the most sane politician in America. I still don't understand why Americans are so insistent on keeping their "Bad for the people, good for business" policies. If you're in the 1% sure that makes sense, but for everyone else life is so much nicer with free healthcare, good vacation time, maternity leave, good public transport, proper pri…

It might be interesting to you to watch John Oliver's video on the wealth gap in America. He covers why people consistently protect the 1%, even if it's not in their current best interests.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LfgSEwjAeno

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