Covid 19

And the result of the conservatives and libertarians pushing to restrict the ability of the BATF to track trends in gun purchases to identify straw purchase trends and to make sure that everyone has the ability to have a gun even if they are deemed incompetent to care for themselves. Odd that you would point out the flaws in those political views.

 

The murder rate in Charlotte, NC is 12.08 per 100,000.
The murder rate in Winston-Salem, NC is 12.5 per 100,000.
The murder rate in Durham, NC is 13.20 per 100,000.
The murder rate in Greensboro, NC is 14.43 per 100,000.
The murder rate in High Point, NC is 16.77 per 100,000.
The murder rate in Chicago, IL is 18.26 per 100,000.
The murder rate in Buffalo, NY is 18.38 per 100,000.
The murder rate in Montgomery. AL is 18.54 per 100,000.
The murder rate in Shreveport, LA is 18.66 per 100,000.
The murder rate in Little Rock, AR is 19.15 per 100,000.
The murder rate in Atlanta, GA is 19.53 per 100,000.
The murder rate in Tuscaloosa, AL is 20.77 per 100,000.
The murder rate in Columbus, GA is 20.94 per 100,000.
The murder rate in Cincinnati, OH is 21.1 per 100,000.
With 64.54 murders per 100,000 residents, St. Louis had the highest murder rate for any major American city in 2019.

 

Correlation or causation, that is a question....

 

What political party is in control of each of those cities and/or counties?

 

Apples to oranges. The entire country experiences gun violence like no other country in the world. That’s a fact, regardless of where a person stands on the issue of guns. I’m asking you why a writer would choose to compare gun violence to covid deaths? Why would the writer choose this particular subject matter over any other deaths that occur unrelated to Covid deaths? The writer could have chosen to compare covid deaths to deaths from “heart disease”, “suicide”, “drug overdoses”, “car accidents”, or “falling from cliffs while taking selfies during a hike”, or any number of things, but the writer of this article did not do that and for a very specific reason, since he knew that the use of the word “Chicago” would cause a very specific emotional reaction in his readers.

And that was his deliberate intent, especially when rural people read about “big city violence” and the writer can stoke their fears yet again. (Rural people almost never go into big cities mostly because they’re terrified of them due to articles like these.) Never mind that any kind of “death from violence” which affects all U.S. cities, towns, counties, municipalities, townships, unincorporated areas, hilltops, coves, and suburban ice cream shops, has nothing at all to do with deaths from a communicable disease. So, the writer of this article has accomplished a number of fearful emotional reactions in his readers, while utilizing unrelated numbers to make it APPEAR to be related in some way, when it’s definitely not. What he has rather deftly accomplished, like all rhetorical magicians, is to remind certain readers of their greatest fears and to use their fears for other persuasive purposes. I can deconstruct the same type of logical fallacy that the left uses to induce associated fears in their constituents, but that would probably be redundant.

 

Exactly.

 

Oh, it’s the “Democratic city” narrative again that’s so popular these days. Can we talk about how high the damn rent is in towns and cities all over the country these days, and how low the pay is for people who don’t have a job in the high tech Industry like you do, Jesse? Can we talk about the serious drug problem in this country that has never been solved and is getting much worse? These issues used to be restricted to the large cities, but no longer are. I once had to go to the Smithfield courthouse and was shocked by all the meth heads that were in there waiting for their hearings. Truly tragic. These problems didn’t exist here when I was young, but the economy of the country is totally different now. You’ve got your high-paying, high-tech jobs (you can pat yourself on the back now, Jesse) and just insecure, crap jobs for everybody else, who are just trying to get by the best way that they can. No wonder so many Americans are addicted to drugs. Where’s their “American Dream”?

 

Why does that matter, since it is to show that you have to adjust for size before claiming a better or worse rate of anything if you want to do it correctly. The political party controlling the city has no power to keep out illegal guns when their authority ends at the city limits too, just so you don't fall into another logical fallacy situation.

 

Younger, college graduates, living in urban areas are more likely to be a Democrat while older, high school or some college educated white men living in rural areas are more likely to be a Republican, if that is what you are seeking. Given the urbanization of the nation since the 1900s the GOP seems to be phasing itself out in the attempt to alienate all but the evangelical rural white men.

 

You can get a job making $35-45k a year just about anywhere these days. And if you get a low paying job, maybe you need two jobs or two people with incomes. Two people making $12/hour (McDonalds type of pay these days), can easily afford a 1 bedroom apartment in most areas.

$12 * 2080 hours *2 = $48960 / 40 = $1224/month rent

 

We’re not talking about being able to “afford an apartment” and making some landlord rich just to live there. I’m talking about generational wealth creation. That’s where you build wealth and are able to pass it on to your children. Anybody can “get by” on crap jobs, just to pay the rent, but none of those crap jobs will be able to provide generational wealth that can be passed on. You need to have a decent paying job and especially own property to do that, and with the average home selling for 350k in the Raleigh area, a person without an education, or marketable skills for these jobs, will be stuck in an increasing cycle of zero opportunity and poverty. Living on 35-45k will not build wealth in this country…far from it..and people with this income level won’t even be approved for a home mortgage these days, except perhaps, in the worst neighborhoods where there are…..mostly crap jobs. And people wonder why some Americans sell drugs, or are addicted to drugs in this country. It’s not so much as a “moral failing” of the individual, as it is an economic and moral failing of an entire economic system. And if you think this reality will be restricted to just the big cities like Chicago, you would be wrong. Just go to the Smithfield County courthouse on any given day and you will see much of the same problems right in your own backyard, but reflected proportionally to the size of the population.

 

Fast food and other low wage workers generally do not get 40 hours a week at their jobs, which is why they often have 2 to 3 jobs. Then you have the travel expenses since mass transit sucks in this area and travel is necessary.

 

30% of the country survives on “gig” jobs today. In these jobs, there are no benefits and the contracted employee takes on all of the risks associated with the job, including any insurances. If you are an actual employee in the food service or retail industry, your hours are likely to be part-time in which case, you do not qualify for benefits. You can work 2 or 3 jobs in these industries, but that’s nearly impossible since your schedule always changes, and oftentimes, an employee knows what their hours will be only one week in advance. Like it or not, this is the future in our country for many people.

 

Working at a $12-15/hour job should be what you do when you are 16-21, then you should aspire to do more. After 10-15 years you should easily be making double that if you try. A plumber, welder, or electrician these days pulls in $75-100k even. If you are doing well and educating yourself and proving yourself at your jobs, you should be able to double your income every 5-10 years. Obviously once you reach $150k+ though that will slow down a bit.

 

Only in “The Republic of Jesse” does your strategy make any sense. Are you aware of what the average American salary is these days in relation to expenses? You’re clueless. Most Americans are struggling these days with tons of debt, robbing Peter to pay Paul, and although no one dares to mention their circumstances, (mostly because our culture always focuses on the “winner” and heaven forbid anyone should ever tell the truth about their struggles), you won’t ever hear about it. But statistics tell the story pretty well. And remember, when times are good, people do not express anger and resentment like they’re doing now. So things are not as good for everyone in the country as you might think, and that anger and resentment was building long before Trump tapped into it, or the pandemic hit. You’re living in an insulated bubble, and too blind to understand the lives of Americans living outside of your precious, high-tech job.

 

All you need to do is pay for an advanced education, while also working to support yourself and avoiding the pitfalls that are thrown into your path .... really.

 

I had a full time job all through college, hense why it took me 7 years to get a 4 year degree, taking as many credits at community college as I could the first 2+ years. But I still got my degree without any debt at the end. It can be done if people try.

 

It can, but that is no guarantee that everyone can either. That is the problem with drawing conclusions from anecdotal data.