America's Hostile Overclass
What does America's overclass think of the rest of us? The short answer is "not much." They think ordinary people's splurging on natural resources is destroying the planet and needs to be cut back forcefully. And that the government needs to stamp down on ordinary people enjoying luxuries that, in their view, should be reserved for the top elites.
These are the implications of the results of two surveys of elite people conducted by pollster Scott Rasmussen by the Committee to Unleash Prosperity, an organization that supports low tax rates and low government spending. The surveys covered not large swaths of the population but were confined to the top 1% of society.
One survey, the Elite, included only respondents with postgraduate degrees, household incomes above $150,000 and residents in a ZIP code with more than 10,000 people per square mile. Another, Ivy League graduates, included adults who attended Ivy League or other selective private colleges such as Chicago, Duke, Northwestern or Stanford.
You probably won't be surprised that the large majority of this Elite feels economically well off. Nor, if you've kept up with recent changes in party identification, will you be much surprised that 73% of these elites identify as Democrats and only 14% as Republicans.
What is surprising is the extent to which this American overclass would deprive its fellow citizens of things they have taken for granted. Half of these groups, 47% of Elites and 55% of Ivies, say the United States provides people with "too much individual freedom."
More than three-quarters favor, "to fight climate change, the strict rationing of energy, gas, and meat," a proposition rejected by 63% of the public. Again, "to fight climate change," between half and two-thirds favor bans on gas stoves (a recent target despite demurrals of Biden bureaucrats and New York state Democrats), gasoline-powered cars (heavily disfavored by Biden Democrats and California rules) and SUVs, "private" air conditioning and "nonessential air travel."
The ascetic economist Thorstein Veblen, in his 1899 book "The Theory of the Leisure Class," argued that the rich engaged in "conspicuous consumption" activities such as golf, polo and art collecting, for which ordinary people had neither the time nor the money.
A century and a quarter later, America has rich people hoping to deprive ordinary people of "conspicuous consumption" activities they can afford and where they clutter up the airports, interstate highways and high-end malls.
For generations, Democrats have liked to portray themselves as the tribune of the little man, the defender of policies that enable ordinary people without special advantages, or with many disadvantages, to live comfortably, securely and in dignity. There may be some condescension in this posture, but also a considerable element of respect.
This survey shows that today, this 1% of the public, which includes virtually all elective and appointive Democrats in Washington and states like California, New York and New Jersey, tends to see the bulk of its fellow citizens as selfish and destructive, in need not just of discipline but deserving of harsh restrictions on their freedoms.
This attitude is echoed by the wider group of Democratic voters. A 2023 Pew Research survey shows that while 31% of Republicans, even with their party out of power, think America "stands above all other countries in the world," only 9% of Democrats do so.
It's an unstable and dangerous situation when a largely one-party elite looks, with fear and loathing, across what Rasmussen describes as a "Grand Canyon gap" between it and its multiparty fellow citizens. It's reminiscent somehow of the "let them eat cake" French royalists in 1789 or Russian nobles in 1917. An overclass this disconnected and contemptuous risks disruption.
A better approach comes from an undoubted member of America's elite, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. Speaking to CNBC at Davos last month, Dimon recounted a bus trip to Spokane and Boise and Bozeman: "People are growing. They're hungry to grow. They're innovating. It's everywhere. It's not just Silicon Valley."
Perhaps aware the Mountain West votes Republican, Dimon, who calls himself a centrist Democrat, conceded that former President Donald Trump "wasn't wrong about some of the critical issues" and was "kind of right" about NATO and immigration and "grew the economy quite well."
Of elite Democrats' contempt for Trump supporters, he had less to say. "The Democrats have done a good job with the deplorables, hugging their Bibles and their beer and their guns. I mean, really? Can we stop that stuff and actually grow up and treat other people respectfully and listen to them a little bit?"
It's a question other members of our dysfunctional overclass might ask themselves.
https://townhall.com/columnists/michaelbarone/2024/02/16/americas-dysfunctional-overclass-n2635314
****************************************************Understated by Feds, Through-the-Roof Housing Inflation Is Crushing Would-Be American Homeowners
Business headlines say that inflation is down, yet countless Americans are struggling, particularly with finding somewhere affordable to live.
How do we reconcile these seemingly contradictory notions? First, lower inflation means prices are rising slower, but still rising. Second, housing inflation is being undercounted by official government metrics as much as 4-to-1.
The consumer price index from the Bureau of Labor Statistics is designed to measure the cost increase of a common basket of goods. Surprisingly, though, it doesn’t include the cost of housing.
The CPI tries to capture consumption, but not anything considered an investment, which would include a home and any improvements to it, like installing a swimming pool. Similarly, things like the chlorine tablets used to maintain the swimming pool are also excluded since they’re considered part of an investment.
This isn’t a trivial fact, because when the price of those tablets skyrocketed more than 200% in 2022, that increase was nowhere to be found in the CPI. This is just one example of how the index undercounted the increase in the cost of living for many Americans.
While it doesn’t directly measure the cost of homeownership, the CPI does try to estimate it by looking at renter surveys. Basically, the Bureau of Labor Statistics uses the responses in these surveys to estimate not only the change in the cost of renting, but also the change in the cost of homeownership through a category called “owner’s equivalent rent.”
If the cost of rent increases at the same rate as the cost of homeownership, then this methodology should theoretically create an accurate measurement of the increased cost of housing overall. The problem today is that the cost of homeownership has risen much faster than rents over the past three years.
Although rents are at a record high today, the premium to own a home vs. renting one has never been so large before. According to the CPI, rents have gone up 19.5% over the last three years, and the more-encompassing shelter component of the CPI has risen 19.4% over the same time.
According to the National Association of Realtors, however, the median sales price of existing homes is up 23.7% in the past three years. And interest rates on mortgages have more than doubled in that time, increasing the monthly mortgage payment even more.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta compiles a monthly homeownership affordability index, which estimates the cost to own a median-price home and compares that with the median household income. The index looks at not just how much a homeowner would need to pay in principal and interest, but also homeowners’ insurance, taxes, and personal mortgage insurance.
In January 2021, the median price of a home was just under $300,000, while the interest rate on a 30-year mortgage was 2.7%. All in all, it costs $1,600 a month to afford a home, which is 28% of the median household income. That’s one of the most affordable ratios since the Atlanta Fed started keeping track of this metric in 2006.
By November 2023 (the most recent period for which figures are available), things had deteriorated. In just under three years, the price of a median home shot up to $363,000, while interest rates were 7.4%. Taxes and insurance also skyrocketed, helping drive the monthly cost of homeownership to an eye-opening $2,831.
That’s a 77% increase in just three years or four times the increase in rent counted by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. It now takes 43.9% of the median household income to afford a median-price home. But note that this is before-tax income. After taxes, it takes well over half of the median household income to own a median-price home.
The stratospheric cost of homeownership has led many American families to cut corners wherever possible. That’s why 18 million Americans today are doing without homeowners insurance. The untenable cost of living has forced them to roll the dice on their financial futures.
But neither the exorbitant cost of owning a home, nor the drop in insurance coverage is incorporated in the CPI. This undercounting of inflation is a key reason why so many people disapprove of the economy despite the official metrics improving. Flawed statistics won’t help cover your unaffordable mortgage.
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Oakland restaurant owner says city needs more cops, crime problem ‘worst I’ve ever seen’: ‘It’s scary’
Stories about high-profile companies in Oakland closing shop or hiring extra security have made grim headlines in recent months.
But it’s not just corporations that are feeling the crunch of increased crime in the Bay Area.
One local Oakland restaurant owner bluntly told Fox News Digital that the city where she’s spent nearly all her 45 years is “the worst I’ve ever seen it.”
Target closed its downtown Oakland location last year after police responded to more than 100 smash-and-grab thefts and similar incidents in 2023.
In-N-Out recently announced its sole Oakland burger joint was closing, the first time in the company’s history it had to make such a decision, due to rampant burglaries, property damage and armed robberies in the area.
A Denny’s also closed down last month because of the crime epidemic.
Then there’s Blue Shield, Clorox, and Kaiser Permanente, the largest employer in Oakland, who have issued warnings to employees, hired security guards or taken other actions in response to a crime surge in the city.
Weyanti Ahmed, who runs Y’s Choice restaurant in the city’s Jack London district near the waterfront, says the developments show Oakland won’t begin to thrive until it makes serious changes.
The neighborhood has been beset by rising crime, forcing local hubs to close or raise prices in response.
“It’s scary for business owners,” she told Fox News Digital.
“It’s scary for even a citizen just walking down the street. It’s just not comfortable. You’re always on guard, and it’s absolutely affected my business tremendously.”
She described one particularly terrifying incident in December when a shooting occurred near the restaurant while she had customers inside.
She has seven employees, and she says she no longer allows them to use public transportation if they don’t have their own vehicle.
“There’s just not enough police presence in Oakland,” she said. “Especially in our area, like downtown, Jack London, it’s a tourist attraction. So it only makes sense for a lot of the crimes to happen there, because they know a lot of tourists are down there.”
One woman told local outlet KTVU last year the once-vibrant district was turning into a “ghost town,” recounting seeing cars broken into in broad daylight while she walked her dog.
Another man said, “this could be a vibrant community but it ain’t right now.” “Defund the police? That don’t work,” he said.
Ahmed says she and her fellow business owners in the neighborhood do their best to look out for one another, but they’re limited in what they can do.
She’s been forced to rely more on delivery apps like DoorDash and Grubhub because people don’t feel comfortable dining at her restaurant, which specializes in soul and seafood.
She also said she’s considered closing down her own location because of how many dine-in customers she’s lost.
“So when you’re going to have dinner or lunch or whatever it is, and then you go outside and your car’s broken into, that $30 meal has now cost you over $230,” she said.
“Would you go back? Probably not… The whole dining experience in Jack London, it’s just not going to happen because no one is comfortable to sit down and eat.”
Oakland is the county seat of Alameda County, whose District Attorney Pamela Price has faced criticism for being perceived as soft on crime with her progressive policies, including such measures and efforts as not trying juveniles as adults, seeking lower sentences and probation for more crimes, and doing away with special-circumstance sentencing enhancements.
Oakland is also without a permanent police chief at the moment, and Ahmed said she’s “fed up” and disappointed with Democratic Mayor Sheng Thao and the City Council.
https://nypost.com/2024/02/16/business/oakland-restaurant-owner-slams-citys-crime-problem/
*************************************************They do hate us
They are trying to destroy America, of course, because Leftist ideology is built upon power and control of others, regardless of how many people they must kill, maim, torture, imprison, enslave, terrorize, or otherwise oppress and cower into obedience. Liberty is the enemy of power. Thus, true American values are the enemy of Leftism and totalitarianism, thus the enemy of the Democratic Party. That the political party largely established by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison has become such a hater of America and freedom is one of the saddest tales of history.
To repeat, true American values—those so proudly proclaimed to the world in our Declaration of Independence—are the enemy of Leftism and totalitarianism. The United States is not, has not been, and never will be a perfect country because we have been, are, and always will be composed of imperfect human beings, of which modern-day Democrats are the worst America has ever produced. But, despite its faults, this America has also done countless good deeds in its history, without which these modern-day hate-America Leftist hypocrites would not be able to do what they do and are trying to do, i.e., destroy the very country that has given them the freedom to make the very attempt at the destruction they are making.
Which nation was it, in the 20th century, that fought two world wars that were really none of its business but had to fight because it was brutally attacked by freedom-loathing, totalitarian regimes who wanted power they had no right to have? Great Americans—twice—in two world wars shed their blood to save Europe and the world. If it wasn’t for America, how many extra people on earth today would be speaking German or Japanese? I told more than one Chinese when I lived there, “If it wasn’t for America, you’d be speaking Japanese now.” It was a thought they had never contemplated because their Leftist, freedom-hating, murderous, totalitarian government wouldn’t allow them to.
Further, which country was it that led the world in defeating the most horrible, homicidal philosophy—atheistic communism led by the Soviet Union—mankind has ever seen? At one point, half the world’s population lived under a despotic communist regime. Who stopped that? Who put an end to it? The United States of America did, thank you, and especially, thank you, Ronald Reagan. We probably could save a billion and half more people from communism today if only we had a President who believed in something other than the perversion of perverts, who truly cared about human rights and prosperity, and who didn’t love China and hate his own country.
And speaking of human rights, which country was it that announced the sublime truths, “all men are created equal, that their Creator endows them with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness”? Which country was it that led itself and the world out of thousands of years of human bondage and slavery? Which country was it that pointed the world to freedom and gave all its citizens equality under the law? Which country was it that has been the most prosperous, richest nation in human history, so wealthy that its current government has wasted countless trillions of dollars on useless projects, at home and abroad, and its people are STILL the wealthiest the world has ever seen?
I’ll tell you, for you Leftists who know nothing about true American history—the United States of America, the greatest country the world has ever seen, the country YOU are trying to destroy, did all of that. It’s still a magnificent country, even with Biden, Pelosi, Obama, Schumer, and McConnell plaguing it. And they are plaguing it ONLY because America IS a magnificent country. Do you think the Soviet Union or communist China would allow Uniparty politicians to do to THEM what they are trying to do to America? Nancy, believe me, you would have been in a gulag a long time ago, but only if the Cheka or KGB hadn’t first put a bullet in your empty, hypocritical skull or Xi Jinping hadn’t cut your guts out. They eat their own, too.
America remains a great country because there remain some great people in it. People akin to those who were willing to die in two world wars and fight godless communism to save the world from tyrannical, power-hungry, murderous, megalomaniacal Leftists. People who truly believe that “all men are created equal”—TRULY believe it, not like Leftists—and who hate slavery and human oppression and never want to see it anywhere, ever again. People who still believe in God and “go and sin no more” and who are willing to allow their hard-earned tax dollars to be given to innumerable people, at home and abroad, who don’t deserve a penny of it. But they are willing to do that because those are the kinds of people they are and the sacrifices they are prepared to make for America.
But, honestly, we ARE getting a wee bit weary of it. And we are getting tired of it, Leftist, because of people like you who are the exact opposite of true American greatness.
We know you want to bring down and destroy the greatest country the world has ever seen. We aren’t blind anymore; we can see it now. And we are going to fight you every step of the way. You’ll destroy America, the world’s only hope, over our dead bodies.
And don’t think we won’t take a whole lot of you with us. We fought to save Europe, Asia, and the world. We’ll certainly do whatever is necessary to save America.
America is still the greatest country in the world. It has been since July 4, 1776. Oh, Leftist, July 4, 1776, is the day America became independent. You probably don’t even know that.
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My other blogs. Main ones below:
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://edwatch.blogspot.com (EDUCATION WATCH)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
http://jonjayray.com/blogall.html More blogs
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Kristina Pimenova, once said to be the most beautiful girl in the world. Note blue eyes and blonde hair
Bliss: What every woman wants: to feel safe and secure in the arms of her man. Robert Irwin and Rorie Buckey. See
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