General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: A segment of DU is very invested in painting a dystopian picture of the US [View all]rbnyc
(17,045 posts)...and neighborhoods.
There are a lot of reasons why those statistics might be reflecting truth in some ways and not reflecting truth in other ways. That would be an interesting sub-topic.
But regardless of the nature of statistics, I believe that many people feel very economically insecure. I know I do.
A common experience is that we are not seeing increases in our pay, while we are seeing increases in our hours, our productivity and our cost of living. We pay more and more for health insurance each year while the rising cost of co-pays and shrinking pool of doctors who accept our particular plans cause us to neglect our own and our family's health care anyway. We can't afford to go to the dentist at all. We have no significant savings. We may be approaching 50 and trying to figure out how to pay for college for our kids while still paying our own student loans. We know we have little chance of ever being able to retire.
We may even be employed in a position where we are involved in hiring and see the hundreds of resumes coming in for a single low-paying position from recent graduates, and from long-term unemployed, overqualified older people.
We are under enormous pressure with little support all while record profits are hoarded by a small group of people with unprecedented power to influence public policy.
So, even knowing that anecdotes and statistics are very different things, we gravitate toward statistics that reflect what we see.
We repeat the stories that are like our own story.
And we are hoping for and working toward all the same things you are, a better society for all people.
Why are you dividing us?