Why are you Dems and Indys so miserable all the time? New Pew Research Survey

Parent Cafe
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<p>There are that many threads because it is in the news, for heavens sake.</p>

<p>You have coruption, indictments, senate testimony- mining, Katrina, illegal wire tapping, Rove and Cheney leaking information, torture pictures, a shooting, missing billions of dollars, a deficit, Katrina victims being put out on to the street, pictures coming out that the exisitence of was denied, Iraq war casualties and lack of electricity there, cuts in education and social services, and no one has yet to talk about the budget matter where it was two different budgets passed in the house and senate and the republicans don’t want another vote even though millions and millions of dollars are at stake, and the original vote the Cheney was needed to break the tie on, corporation war profitteering, and so much more. And some people defend them all or most no matter what. No wait, they don’t defend or excuse it, they attack the messengers.</p>

<p>All in the news…you want us to talk about fashion?</p>

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<p><<i’d like=“” to=“” see=“” more=“” of=“” you=“” folks=“” get=“” the=“” chip=“” off=“” your=“” shoulders,=“” i=“” guess.=“”>></i’d></p>

<p>Driver, thanks for your answer, but how could this really be true when you title the thread: " Why are you Dems and Indys so miserable all the time? New Pew Research Survey"</p>

<p>The survey is interesting, but your often sweeping generalizations (you’re all miserable) and the caustic second-person POV (You Dems and Indys) are so disagreeable that it makes it difficult to focus on content. </p>

<p>FS - What do I think? I think Driver’s baiting people. </p>

<p>And finally, in an attempt to answer the question: Perhaps liberals/Dems report being less happy as a group because people of color report being less happy (as a group), and they generally identify as Democrats. 28% blacks reported being very happy; 36% whites.</p>

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<p>I would really like to know Drivers definitation of a Liberal, it wasn’t very clear in the article, and I know driver has some strong opinions in the area, so explain the label to me please</p>

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<p>

Fashion is good, although another thread on your favorite <em>Reality T.V show</em> will do just fine.</p>

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<p>M2I,
That was the gist of the Pew study (I abbreviated for brevity, not out of disrespect). I really didn’t make any generalizations…it was the study itself that pointed to your party’s general misery.</p>

<p>As to your final point…I couldn’t agree more. People of color are taken for granted by the Democratic party, which is why the happier ones are increasingly being found with Republicans. Think Lynn Swann.</p>

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<p>From the PewReport:
Several of them stand out: Married people are happier than unmarrieds. People who worship frequently are happier than those who don’t. Republicans are happier than Democrats. Rich people are happier than poor people. Whites and Hispanics are happier than blacks. Sunbelt residents are happier than those who live in the rest of the country…</p>

<p>The correlation between happiness and family income is very strong indeed - reported happiness rises in a nearly straight line through eight levels of annual family income. At the highest income category – $150,000 and above - fully 50% of respondents report being very happy; by contrast, just 23% of those who have a family income below $20,000 say they are very happy…</p>

<p>this one says a LOT) — The trend data also show that what matters on the happiness front is not how much money you have, but whether you have more (or less) at any given time than everyone else…</p>

<p>income groups.) But among blacks, there is no correlation - blacks with a family income of $50,000 a year or more are about equally likely to say they are very happy (28%) than are blacks with a family income of less than $50,000 (27%). It’s possible that blacks with incomes much higher than $50,000 (say $100,000 or more) are happier than others, but there were not enough of these higher income blacks in our survey for further analysis on this point…"</p>

<p>I wish they had asked about the environment, health care, etc. when discussing “happiness”- I am pretty happy most of the time, but frustrated, did they seperate the two in the questions? </p>

<p>I have done surveys, and it is very easy to skew a survey, so how the questions are framed is huge</p>

<p>FOr instance, happy can be personal, as some people will answer the question, how they are in their own home, while others answer in the “bigger picture” kind of way</p>

<p>I am very happy in my home, with my family, with my children etc., but not so happy with the grander picture, so if you ask me if I am happy, it would not be a simple yes or no</p>

<p>I wonder how the question was framed and if those that were happy answered in a kind of personal way, while others who were not as happy may see the bigger picture</p>

<p>jsut a thought, because that is how I would answer, not on a purely personal level</p>

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<p><<happier ones=“” are=“” increasingly=“” being=“” found=“” with=“” republicans=“”>> </happier></p>

<p>Strange logic leap there, but I’ll bite.</p>

<p>Lynn Swann’s not happy because he’s a Republican; he’s happy because he’s in good health. Good health trumps all the categories measured in the survey. Too bad the Republican party isn’t doing anything meaningful about health insurance for poor people who can’t afford it.</p>

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<p>Lynn Swann’s good health caused him to become a Republican? I think he’s a Republican because he’s an optimist. The Pew study measured “happiness.” It was my personal conjecture that happiness is related to optimism.</p>

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<p>I think the flaw in the study is measuring happiness rather than optimism or pessimism. Driver is making the leap that if someone is happy they are therefore optimistic. I don’t buy that. Here’s a little excerpt from a book I have on loan from the library by Martin Seligman called Authentic Happiness ( read about it on CC - thank you) </p>

<p>“Why is a book about Positive Psychology about anything more than “happiology” or hedonics - the science of how we feel from moment to moment? A hedonist wants as many good moments and as few bad moments as possible in his life, and simple hedonic theory says that the quality of his llife is just the quantity of good moments minus the quantity of bad moments. This is more than an ivory-tower theory, since very many people run their lives based on exactly this goal. But it is a delusion, I believe, because the sum total of our momentary feelings turns out to be a very flawed measure of how good or how bad we judge an episode - a movie, a vacation, a marriage,or an entire life - to be.”</p>

<p>Like I said before, his studies show that there is no corollation between happiness and the amount of money you have - I found that surprising when I read the book and when I read the Pew study it raised some red flags. </p>

<p>And honestly Driver, this study was on the top of the page when I went to Powerlineblog.com along with a similar conclusion to yours. It ties in so nicely with the Buzzword thread, don’t you think- Dems as negative malcontents?</p>

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<p>Optimism is NOT related to happiness</p>

<p>How you answer the happiness question relates to seeing happiness for yourself, and seeing it for others</p>

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<p>Well, CGM. Allow me to address that, especially since I DO criticize your antics and style on this board. For the record, I would be ecstatic if ALL political discussion would be prohibited on CC. For what seem to be eons ago, there was a place on CC that fell to the lowest of abysmal states because of similar political discussions. Because of its irreparable state, a new Caf</p>

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<p>Xiggi. I must say, at least you are consistent. You hardly ever discuss the topic. </p>

<p>And as for respect, I often just report the news, such as, the new pictures coming out and I was IMMEDIATELY called a hypocrit. It was news I shared that is all over the press. Yet, I was called names for pointing it out</p>

<p>kettle and pot and all that</p>

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<p>“Xiggi. I must say, at least you are consistent. You hardly ever discuss the topic.”</p>

<p>Yes, rarely discussing topics is exactly what I do on College Confidential. On what kind of planet do you live to remain so oblivious to your delusional state?</p>