Why people consistently vote against their own interests to benefit the rich?

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• RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Do we actually vote to benefit the rich?

  Many vote for leaders that openly cater to the rich, but I don’t know that we actually consciously vote to deliberately help the rich.

  Those elected people are the ones telling everyone that the rich are the job creators. They used to feed us the farce that trickle-down was viable, they don’t even bother with the lie anymore. The rich are just squatters on wealth. They get that wealth by consolidating businesses, hoarding assets like real estate, creating artificial scarcity, enshittifying everything, and squeezing labor for more productivity while expending massive effort to minimize overall compensation.

  And they own the media. All of it. Even the “liberal” media is mealy at best about taxing wealth or anything critical of the uber-wealthy, anything right of center is openly against tax, particularly of anyone with wealth.

  All that aside, the real crux of the issue is identity politics. Being a sycophant of the rich is no longer any different than being a evangelical supply-side Jesus CINO, pro-gun, anti-government, anti-tax, anti-environmental regs, blah blah and all the rest of the mulish conservative BS.

  They don’t actually care if we cater to the rich. They care that their team says we should bend over and give the rich everything. Just like their team says school shootings are an acceptable price for having your own personal arsenal, or spreading a potentially deadly disease is better than being inconvenienced by closed restaurants.

  Obstinate tribalism has gleefully supplanted critical thought.

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• Crackhappy@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  In the US at least, the systematic demolishing of the education system has lead to a vast reduction in overall education and critical thinking skills. This was done on purpose. That, combined with the unexpected boon of the Internet, has led to massive wealth shifting from the many to the few.

  You see the results of this change everywhere, especially on the Internet. Lack of basic spelling and grammar skills are just one symptom. All of that is to say that humans are primates and easily trained.

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• Gabadabs@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  I think that it depends on the person. I’ve heard of enough people who voted for Donald because they like that he “says it like it is”, or “he’s a businessman”, or because they just want lower taxes. Some people are so exposed to rage-bait social media/news content and are always being told what to be afraid of and they vote emotionally based on that fear. My grandfather votes the way he does because he’s TERRIFIED of immigrants, even legal ones - because all he does is sit and watch fox news. I think most often, people are busy with their lives, paying their bills, taking care of their kids, etc. and don’t have a lot of energy left over for politics. People treat voting like it’s team sports. A ton of people voted for Donald because they thought tariffs were paid by the other country, not American businesses. I don’t exactly blame people, it’s a lot of information and life is probably a lot more relaxed for people that don’t follow it.

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• ICastFist@programming.dev ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The majority of people vote with their gut and won’t look deep into what politician A is promising, so long as one of the promises is exactly the thing the person wants. For a considerable number of gamers, it’s dealing with woke culture. Trump is a fervent enemy of “the woke”, but he also promised hefty import tariffs on everything, so consoles can get really damn expensive. But hey, the woke sjw’s are getting owned!!

  This piece on Aftermath touches an important point as well, that left leaning content often takes care to not spout random bullshit, while right leaning will just say whatever because haha engagement goes brrrrrrr.

  Going off a tangent, the Brazilian right complains that “the poor vote with their bellies”, implying they’ll vote for whoever promises “free money” or “free meals”, usually in the form of govt programs. During election years, the right will try to claim they were the masterminds behind every sort of program meant to help poor people, such as Bolsa Familia, while loudly and constantly complaining about their existence and doing everything in their power to block money outside election years. It’s common to find people who depend(ed) on Bolsa Familia to survive that complain about “freeloaders” that “want to be fed by the government”. A good portion of right-wingers also believe that the govt pays a whole minimum wage to every person in jail, despite this bullshit being debunked several times already.

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• Tattorack@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  I can use my brother as an example for that:

  My younger brother is entirely sold on billionaire philanthropy. He watched interviews where people like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos on talk shows and podcasts, places where people like this go to advertise themselves, and has been completely convinced that they’re innovative, smart people.

  Smart people who, through just being so damn smart, managed to become billionaires.

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• aesthelete@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  They’re idiots

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• Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Probably unpopular answer, but it’s not some clear cut “this political party has better policies for everyone”. Republican policies usually are better for people living in rural areas, and Democratic policies are usually better for people in cities. I’m sure people will debate this, but this is the reason why people typically vote depending on where they live. At the very least, they believe that their party has better policies for them and their way of life.

  My personal (anecdotal evidence) is that I work for a small business in a rural area, and our main customers are other small business owners (usually self employed or under 5 employees). Over the last 3 presidents, the Obama years were rough for our company, we had explosive growth during the Trump years, and then we’ve had stagnant growth over the past 4 years. Our largest competitor went out of business this past year, which sent us a lot of new customers, but we’ve also had a lot of our customers go out of business as well, so we’ve been pretty stagnant. Being stagnant isn’t terrible, we don’t have shareholders or anything, but the cost of living has increased and company profit/wages haven’t which is a problem. That said I know we’re doing pretty well compared to a lot of people here.

  Another (once again anecdotal) example is that I have a friend who paints murals full time, for the past 30ish years. He told me that he does well with either Republicans or Democrats in office, but that his customers change. During republican presidents, his customer base is usually local businesses wanting to decorate their stores. During democratic presidents, his customer base is usually towns, state buildings, schools, etc.

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  • Rookwood@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Obama took office during the Great Recession and rebuilt the economy. Biden took office during COVID and rebuilt the economy. You’re kinda dense if you think that as soon as a president from another party enters office it would effect the economy so much as these events did…

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    • tburkhol@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      For small businesses, a president taking power can immediately affect business. Small business owners make decisions based on their expectations of future, colored by their emotional state, so if they believe that a Republican President will be good for business, then they’re more likely to order new machinery, hire an extra person, etc. In an ecosystem of small businesses, that optimism feeds on itself.

      Happens in big business, too. S&P500 gained 3+% the day after election, which (if you don’t believe the daily stock market is just gambling) presumably means that ‘the market’ expects 3% more growth out of all those companies, just by Trump’s win being formalized. Stock price up makes it easier for companies to raise capital to expand, buy out competitors, etc

      Neither of those things is “the economy,” but they can feel like it, if you’re close enough.

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    • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Republican policies usually are better for people living in rural areas

      I’m surprised you read past this complete fallacy. I stopped there.

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    • Fubarberry@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I started working this job after Obama had already been in office one term, so I was mainly comparing the final 4 years. I’m really glad I was still in college for the first term when the economy was really rough.

      Covid did have an undeniable effect on the economy at the start of Biden’s term, and I don’t consider that his fault or anything. It does feel like we generally haven’t really recovered from it though, gas prices finally came back down but everything else is crazy expensive still. For example, I do electrical work, and a 250’ roll of 12/2 wire went from $35 in 2019 to $140 today.

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    • obbeel@lemmy.eco.br ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      I think it’s funny you call people dense when in fact they see the difference with their own eyes. Like a small business owner is making less money and people try to convince him that it has nothing to do with the elected government. I don’t think Fubar is the dense one here at all.

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• zeppo@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  They get manipulated about and distracted by certain issues. The people who want power know this and exploit topics such as guns, abortion, fear of crime, racism/nationalism, sexism, economic issues and taxes. Plenty of people vote republican because they have been convinced that Democrats will take their guns, allow in too many immigrants (with the implicit idea that immigrants are bad somehow), be worse on the economy, lower taxes, let criminals get off easy, reduce the influence of Christianity, and so forth.

  There’s also the decades of propaganda about socialism and communism, and against social safety nets as well as government and anything run by the government vs a private entity. So basically, because they’re not very aware or well informed and all themselves to be convinced by propaganda.

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• antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Who is there to vote for otherwise? Two sides of the same coin. The rich try to keep politics about anything except wealth inequality. The rich keep the good candidates off your ballot long before it’s time to choose between tweedle Dee and tweedle dum.

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• jagged_circle@feddit.nl ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Usually this happens when you dont have a democracy. Establish a system with rank choice voting and a few dozen candidates, and you’ll see votes closer signed with voter interests

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• ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  If I’m struggling this much now then imagine how much harder it will be when I have to pay higher taxes

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  • BendingHawk@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    🤣 nailed it

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• Rookwood@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Propaganda. Lack of education. There’s a reason they want to defund public schools. They’re not doing it out of the goodness of their hearts. :)

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• nutsack@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  The rich are clever and very well coordinated

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• Apathy@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Most are wanting an end to this current system so they’ll ‘play’ it out knowing albeit the struggle, Democracy has left the building and late stage capitalism is showing the disparity of the predators and preys of society

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• tiefling@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Becaus they want to see other people suffer

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• Blackmist@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Because it’s no longer about benefits or interests.

  It’s about the “my side won, your side lost, get over it” mentality. It’s about the tribalism and making sure you keep your ire focused on your fellow man rather than looking up and seeing the source of your problems

  And it’s not just the US. It’s fucking everywhere.

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• radix@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  One’s “own best interest” can take a lot of different forms. Especially when the number and variety of plausible candidates are finite. Your preferred candidate for a given office will rarely line up perfectly with your own values. There’s a compromise there.

  If I vote for my own finances, it may come at the cost of my morals. It I vote for my own moral interest, it may cost me more. If I vote for my own power, it may cost someone else their freedoms. How heavily do I weight my own interests against those of a wider society? Political identities and philosophies are complicated, and can’t necessarily be reduced to a single binary choice that is “best” in every scenario.

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• Snapz@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  In the US, is this actually the moment past the point of no return? Would you ever allow yourself to accept that truth if so, or will you need to see actually bodies in the streets before you believe it’s over?

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• systemglitch@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Bexause you have a two party system where both sides are corrupt

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  • lastunusedusername2@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    Can you really not see the difference between the parties?

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    • rimu@piefed.social ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Part of the issue is the system of voting is set up so that there can only ever be two parties. Dividing the country up into chunks and then having one winner in each chunk creates a situation where voting third party is a wasted vote. When there are only two options it's pretty hard to vote for your interests.

      In the 90s when New Zealand changed to MMP to led to a proliferation of new parties getting into parliament and the people involved were much much less often old white males. It changed the dynamic completely.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mixed-member_proportional_representation

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electoral_system_of_New_Zealand

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    • CarbonatedPastaSauce@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      Any rational person can see the difference, doesn’t mean he’s wrong. Just because democrats are way better than republicans doesn’t mean they are GOOD. Both parties attract corrupt greedy powermongers. MAGA / GOP just gets the lion’s share.

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    • oji@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

      youtu.be/E7pfsneLSSM

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• _bcron_@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  There’s a substantial assumption that the wealthy know best how to manage wealth and the economy but it’s all predicated on the notion that those wealthy people are willing to act in the interest of everyone, when in fact they tend to act on their own personal interest (I mean, if someone has a net worth of over a billion dollars and they’re trying to accumulate even more money, that should give you a good idea how their policy will affect people who are making 40k/yr)

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• Fighter_Moo@discuss.online ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Anger, Self-Loathing, and misguided Hate

  Anger is like a fire. They’re a useful yet dangerous tool that burns and breaks stuff. When handled correctly, fire can shine light in the dark, give warmth in the cold, cook meals for the hungry, or protect you from wolves. In other words, a well controlled Anger is good at getting work done.

  Not everyone has learned how to manage their Anger properly. Some let their Anger go too dim, making it hard to do stuff. Some redirect their Anger at themselves, out of fear of hurting others or believing they deserve it. Some let their Anger spread without a care of who it hurts, as long as it gets the job done. Some learn to concentrate their Anger into a beam of Hate, but don’t know who or what to aim the beam at.

  Going back to the question “why do people vote against their own interests?” It is Self-Loathing. It is people who are so used to having a piece of themselves set on fire by others that they start setting themselves on fire of their own volition. It is misguided Hate. It is people who know there’s a problem and want to fix it, but have been misled about the source of the problems by people who are interested in not getting targeted by Hate.

  “Why do they vote to benefit the rich?” We don’t have a choice there when either vote would have benefited the rich and powerful anyway. Just choosing between different types of benefits. Money and Power have a tendency to rise upwards, so any aid we give to those struggling at the bottom will end up benefiting those at the top anyway. But I hear ya, giving benefits to the poor and letting it rise away still beats just giving it to the rich and hoping it’ll trickle down someday.

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• FuryMaker@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  They believe it will benefit them one day.

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• PugJesus@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Because civic education is lowly valued.

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• scarabic@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  Because everyone thinks of themselves as a potential rich person. Or in other words: people think that being rich is the ideal state, so let’s align everything around that.

  If we truly put a yoke on the rich and contained them, we would also be reining in the smallfolks dreams.

  By contrast, rich people don’t sit around dreaming about being smallfolk and planning aspirationally for the day that will happen.

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• Kcap@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  It all boils down to education

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• Free_Opinions@feddit.uk ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  What would be an example of this? It’s not obvious to me that by simply voting in a manner that benefits “the rich” then also means it’s against your own interests. When someone gains something it doesn’t mean I must lose something in exchange.

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  • Jackthelad@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

    “You don’t make the poor richer by making the rich poorer”.

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• NewDark@lemmings.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Manufactured consent

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• vortexal@sopuli.xyz ⁨2⁩ ⁨days⁩ ago

  Kind of an indirect answer, but I’ve heard people state that they vote the way they do because they believe that there needs to be a balance between “good and bad”. Obviously, this is complete bullshit. Even if there should be a “balance”, we already have enough problems as is, we don’t need the government making it worse.

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• Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

  The incredibly recent Sri Lankan election enters the chat… and feels sad at being ignored.

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  • tigerjerusalem@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

    I’m ignorant about that, care to elaborate?

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    • Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

      Sri Lankans (of all varieties - complicated history) have elected a left leaning coalition. It’s very unusual the majority of every “section” of Sri Lanka to throw their support behind the same candidate / party (again - historical reasons.)

      Here’s a BBC link. It appears to be reasonably factual as I understand it and is a good synopsis:

      www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crr9n2w0lyzo

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