Why have hot-button issues mainly been social, not economic?

[The Duke]

Ernest and Dazzleman are partly right, that the economy has been good enough in the last quarter century that we don't worry much about the basics.

Gabu is partly right, that economics is a scientific dialogue, and social issues are an emotional one.  No one would even think to say, "You ran up a budget deficit of more than 3% of GDP, you're a baby killer!"  I'd like to add on to that, though, that so few people understand economics well enough to have strong feelings about it anyway.  Its not hard to understand basically what gay marriage means.  This is why foreign affairs issues can be a hot button sometimes, we all know what a war is, we don't all know what the Laffer curve is, so foreign policy fits this bill too.

[The Duke]

Ernest and Dazzleman are partly right, that the economy has been good enough in the last quarter century that we don't worry much about the basics.

Gabu is partly right, that economics is a scientific dialogue, and social issues are an emotional one.  No one would even think to say, "You ran up a budget deficit of more than 3% of GDP, you're a baby killer!"  I'd like to add on to that, though, that so few people understand economics well enough to have strong feelings about it anyway.  Its not hard to understand basically what gay marriage means.  This is why foreign affairs issues can be a hot button sometimes, we all know what a war is, we don't all know what the Laffer curve is, so foreign policy fits this bill too.

What makes you think someone needs to understand the Laffer curve theory in order to vote on economic issues?

All he has to so is get tired of living on $7 an hour and have some poltician say, I'll make your minimum wage double that, and give you health insurance.  The odd thing is that few politicians say that, and few of that downtrodden half or so of the population vote.  But it has nothing to do with understanding various economic theories.

Its not a question of simply voting on an issue, its a question of it being a "hot button" issue, one that gets people's blood to boil.

I also disagree that promising a $14 per hour minimum wage and national health care would be a winning combo, since most people don't make less than $14 per hour anyway and most people already have health insurance.  I know you think America is filled with barefoot children searching for bannana peels to eat in the city dump, but its not actually like that.

[The Duke]

remember back in high school when the upper classmen told you that you could catch a buzz from smoking banana peels.  boy, how naive we were back then.  what a sore throat, eh?

What the ?