5d ago

What keeps Americans from being mad about the state of their country?

You're viewing a single thread.

253 comments

It gets said over and over but the country is huge and your experience can vary greatly. If you are a govt employee work is likely more chaotic, some more than others. Telework people coming back to the office, looming layoffs, people resigning/staying, big organizational shifts etc.
If you know a person deported of who may be deported you are probably very concerned for them and the world feels turned upside down.
But for most people the gas prices are about the same, groceries are about the same and their life is about the same. If it wasn't for the news/internet most people probably couldn't tell the difference between administrations so far. It takes a big event you can't easily ignore (Covid 19, Hurricane Helene, LA fires) for even ONE REGION of the country to focus on a problem for a while.
And even then if you are outside of that area people probably won't change their routine beyond posting about it.
- But conditions everywhere are bad. Just because we've grown use to it doesn't mean the constant drain on your heart, body, and mind has gone away. I've never lived in a time where the world around me wasn't eriely cold and uncaring.
  
  I guess it's storytime! The rural area I grew up in was full of unionized industry jobs that shut down in the 80s, and then the auto industry followed in the 2000s. Many moved and for those that stayed life had sucked for a long while.
  But the local mall stayed relevant (there's not a whole lot else to do) and is now being filled with all kinds of new restauraunts and stores where old dead ones were. This was to meet demand since electric vehicle factories were built as well as amazon warehouses and other stuff. Then the taxes led to libraries and schools being built and upgraded.
  Now it's not all sunshine and rainbows of course but for the people there the world seemed cold and uncaring for decades. Now in their eyes it's starting to come back and the federal government had little to do with it. I guess what I'm saying is that it's all pretty subjective
  
  "electric vehicles factories were built" "the government had nothing to do with it."
  These people deserve trump, Amazon, and poverty if they can't see the connection between the inflation reduction act and electric vehicle factories.
  That's the only good thing about democracy. You generally get the government you deserve.
  
  The inflation reduction act was in 2022, everything but amazon was built and operational prior but I get what you mean. I should have phrased it better.
  Yes the federal govt likely had some role in getting favorable conditons for factories to be built. For people living there the following years (and years) of company cash flow caused a lot of the actual second and third order effects, not federal programs aimed at the region specifically. That is what I mean by "the fed govt had little to do with it (from the residents' pov)"
  
  Thank you for the clarification.

253 comments