Comment by wallace_f | Hacker News Reader

Comment by wallace_f | Hacker News Reader

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I'm always puzzled by all the Americans who travel to Asia for all the local markets: everything from food, to personal care, to sex markets, to even medical care. My dental care in Taiwan has been extraordinarily cheap and very good. And yet then I come back to America and see the same people ostensibly support the same authoritarian politicians, police and bureaucrats who spend taxpayer money on authoritarian policing of voluntary markets: everything from outright criminalizing markets, to creating so much red tape and regulatory laws that small business owners find it hard to compete. This is not to say there is not a place for sane and reasonable regulations. In all of Korea, Taiwan, Japan you can find street foods and sex markets and God Forbid outdoor jungle gyms and even full weight lifting sets at popular parks hiking trails. Even though those things can be technically illegal they are tolerated due to common sense, and I just can't see how our decisions to head down the path of authoritarianism in America is not just worse for all of: human dignity, prosperity, and freedom.

Americans are not good at taking care of each other, in my American opinion. We don't naturally think about what would be good for everyone, and so we don't push for changes that would benefit us all in the long term, but costs us all in the short term.

As someone who has lived here (US) for close to 15 years, what I find baffling is that some of the voting isn't even that myopic. It is so strongly ideology based that a poor coal miner would vote for a politician who would gut his healthcare and scream "socialism is bad" at any alternative which might actually be beneficial to them in the short term.

The reason it’s baffling to you is because you’re viewing it through your own ideological bias.

Maybe, just maybe, that poor coal miner knows exactly what he’s voting for because that’s what he wants?

I was going by the PP's premise of choosing one's one good over the greater good of society. What I observed was actually the opposite since that poor coal miner is against "higher taxes" & "socialism" even though it is directly benefiting him. That level of adherence to an ideology is what I found baffling (which has nothing to do with my own ideology).

It's because they have the "American dream" of rising to the top. https://youtu.be/xxD9nGL3NLY

Wall Street is getting another half trillion in cash injection from the Fed.

People who work for a living see it like this: they want a voluntary economy. That's why they vote against "socialism." Most welfare we have goes to the rich.

Exactly! No one or very few would question the wealthy when they vote against their self interest. It’s somewhat condescending to accept wealthy people voting against their immediate self interest and at the same time condemning the poor for voting against their perceived self interest from the POV of non poor people.

The cost of a rich person vs a poor person of voting against their own self interests is not the same. And I am not condemning anyone. To me, it is just contrary to the PP's statement of Americans thinking about themselves and not about others.

Well, yes, they are voting for what they want: to really hurt other people at their own expense.

I'd say it slightly differently: Americans hate other Americans. We will gladly pay $10 to prevent $1 from going to someone else. We think of each other as competition first and foremost.

40% of Americans have never left the country.

Of the 60% who have, there are surely many of us who weren’t doing it to travel to Thailand for prostitutes. I suspect the number of people who are doing that are a small fraction of the population (of the people I know who have traveled abroad, that percentage is 0%)

My comment is not specifically about travelling to Thailand for prostitutes, and occurrence of that event could be ommitted from existence and my comment would have the same meaning, albeit a less apparent connection to the topic.

I read through your comment twice and am still confused why it’s puzzling that Americans would travel to Asia for the local markets. If it’s cheaper, and the same or similar quality, why wouldn’t they?

My intended meaning was that it is puzzling why Americans ostensibly tolerate policies which eliminate those markets, but only after they come back.

But, how do you know that the same Americans traveling to Asia are also tolerating said policies/politicians? I've had the same next door neighbors for 15+ years, and I have no idea what policies/politicians they tolerate/support. Much less the random person walking down the street.

I'm speaking from personal experience. I have travelled a lot, and I've noticed this as a pattern over what must be hundreds of people I've talked to at this point. I don't really know if my sample is indicative of the US population--I'm just puzzled by what I've seen.

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