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PaperclipPerfector  4mo ago (text post)   38814 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 15, 2024

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It's still a useful distinction, even if not everyone is 100% maker or taker.

I don't think that it is - at least not in a political sense. Conceptually it's an easy distinction to make, but in practice it's just arguing over whose subsidies and legal privileges don't count.

But not (if taken seriously) a politically productive one given that the vast majority of the population are takers from birth to the early 20's, makers during their working life, and takers in retirement.

Given the number of right-populists who try to use maker/taker framing, it is very easy to have fun with the fact that makers voted for remain and takers voted leave, but in fact that just reflects the generational divide in British politics.

But not (if taken seriously) a politically productive one given that the vast majority of the population are takers from birth to the early 20's, makers during their working life, and takers in retirement.

That once was the vast majority of America, but it's closer to a bare majority today, and the share is shrinking. There have been policy and especially immigration decisions which have caused this.

Sure but NIMBYism is a near uniquely bad litmus test for Maker/Taker. By that test in a lot of cases you'll get answers like "Tech CEO is a TAKER because he doesn't want his beach town to have a new low end high rise hotel put up" or "Union Carpenters are TAKERS because they want Union labor on Gov subsidized work."

Most NIMBYs are, or at least were, successful employed people who want to "protect" the lifestyle they feel their work entitled them to.

Most tests suffer similarly, unless you're ready to bite the an-cap bullet at least a few times.

NIMBYism is unusual because it is important enough to be politically unavoidable but doesn't align with any of the other obvious dividing lines in American politics. The fact that it isn't a federal question helps - in the UK it is enough of a national issue that the logic of partisanship eventually forced politics into a "YIMBY Labout NIMBY Tories" alignment.

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