If you're of age, you need to vote. No excuses. This is one of the most important elections of our time. Everyone needs to have their voices heard.
The wage group that has the highest percentage of voters are the rich. They get tax breaks and run companies that get "tax incentives." The people that need the changes- the majority of us- are the ones that should be VOTING.
If you haven't noticed, the wealth gap is growing. We are on the verge of eliminating the middle class. This chart is from information in 2004. I wouldn't doubt that the top 10% have increased even more of a percentage of wealth.
(http://inequality.org)
Immigrants from third world countries are coming here for a hope of prosperity or just to survive. We might be heading that way. Right now, our dollar is heading to nearly worthless. This is a 5 year chart of US dollars to Euros:
(http://finance.yahoo.com)
Gas prices are working their way up to $4/gallon. This affects everything from groceries to plane tickets, not to mention the price to drive to and from school and work. Homes are still being foreclosed on. People are still losing the freedoms we have been guaranteed.
Why the apathy? Voting isn't going to turn everything around immediately, but there has to be a change! It's time for the majority to stand together and VOTE!
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I decided not to vote for a number of reasons.
Mostly because my vote will be out weighed by the amount of ignorant votes.
Plus the state that I'm located in--Connecticut--doesn't even really matter.
If I was in Ohio, or Iowa my vote would actually count.
All the candidates do is win the big states, then they're set in the electoral college. My state remains a democratic state so either way, if I wanted to vote republican it also wouldn't matter.
Not to mention all the currently running candidates I don't like for various reasons.
See Why I Will Not Vote.
In response to your gas price comment. Either way we vote, McCain or whomever wins the Democratic primary will be creating reforms that our nation can't pay for. We will just be increasing the debt of our nation even more. Gas will always be on the rise, no matter who is in office because IT IS A NATURAL RESOURCE. I'm sick of people telling me that if such and such wins, the gas prices will lower. No they won't.
They never will. Unless they're some God who can create oil from water, this will never happen.
+mspin
Gas will always be on the rise,
So stop using petroleum. There are dozens of other alternatives. Start putting pressure on your representatives to make changes, and start putting pressure on the oil companies by using alternative means of transportation and alternative fuels.
Biodiesel
Ethanol
Water
Hydrogen
Solar
Electricity
These are just a few among many ways you can drive without using petroleum. And some of the sources don't even require changes to your vehicle. And that doesn't even include alternative forms of transportation, such as making use of the passenger rail system if your area has it, walking, or biking to the places you need to go, among other things.
This is a free market economy. If you want change, you have to put pressure on suppliers by hitting them where it hurts: their wallets.
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
I have a gas guzzler- a '99 Grand VItara. It was my mom's, but she gave it to me when my fuel efficient Corolla was totaled. I didn't have a choice. I'm a working class college student with nothing to use as collateral for a loan for an alternative-fuel vehicle. My car can't take anything but petro.
That's something that hasn't been dealt with. What happens when someone does finally market a petro-free vehicle at a decent price? A lot of us still won't be able to afford a new car.
-Sonja :)
"...democracy works only when you vote. When you don't take the time to vote for the candidate you find the least offensive, you run the risk of electing the candidate you find the most offensive"
Like everything else, petros will be phased out and/or converted. Those who can afford it will outright buy alternative fuel vehicles. Depending on the circumstances, there may also be a "trade-up" program. And again, there's also the option for alternative forms of transportation, if not now, then in the future (through moving closer to where you work/go to school).
Even if it's only the ones who can afford the petro-free vehicles at first, that will drop demand enough to force prices down, even marginally, and continue to fall as fewer and fewer people have gas-powered vehicles.
-- quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
What about all the people that are still buying Hummers? They can still afford the MAJOR gas hogs. Not everyone is concerned with the environment or the bondage oil companies have put us in. I don't know if I believe that people that can afford it will be buying only alternative fuel vehicles. I think the demand for petro WILL go down when prices of alternative fuel vehicles drop, but I think oil companies will still price gauge and bleed the last little bit dry.
-Sonja :)
"Democracy works only when you vote. When you don't take the time to vote for the candidate you find the least offensive, you run the risk of electing the candidate you find the most offensive."
My favorite quote related to voting is from a '92 SNL skit, back when SNL was worth watching:
"...democracy works only when you vote. When you don't take the time to vote for the candidate you find the least offensive, you run the risk of electing the candidate you find the most offensive."
I actually feel like I'll be voting for a candidate that I trust, almost unheard of in politics, I know. A lot of people have that apathy. If everyone that doesn't vote out of the "but my vote won't count" excuse actually voted, it WOULD make a big difference. I can only hope enough people do change their minds in November. We've already hit record numbers in primary and caucus votes.
I wasn't saying that we need to vote to lower gas prices. I was saying that that issue alone is drowning the poorer population when it drastically affects buying food. It goes back to the wealth gap and decreasing value of the dollar. Basically, this country is in trouble.
-Sonja :)
I'm friending you. How have I not done that yet?
http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/ediblewoman
*blushes* =D
-Sonja :)
"Democracy works only when you vote. When you don't take the time to vote for the candidate you find the least offensive, you run the risk of electing the candidate you find the most offensive."