Scott Walker offers a fresh new approach

[Donegeal]

Here's an example of what this douchebag thinks is good for the state of Wisconsin: In his latest budget proposal, he is cutting $300 mil from the state University program and local school districts while earmarking the same amount to build a new stadium for a poor NBA franchise that most of the state doesn't care about (and who could leave the state at anytime).

[FlameFlash]

[C0ckney]

Media does not exist in a vacuum, it reflects the people. England has always had intrenched right wing conservative values, even in the midst of a strong socialist instinct.

i'm glad you agree with all the others.

as i said the media is very good at framing issues to bend public opinion. we can see this with all the articles about 'benefit fraud' which circulated in the new millennium. an unceasing barrage of stories about people cheating the system in some way. however according to official statistics the amount of benefit fraud is tiny and is dwarfed by the amount that people are entitled to and don't claim (you won't see the daily mail publishing any stories about that). yet when the public are asked about benefit fraud they over-estimate it by a factor of 34!

we see a similar pattern with other groups targeted by the right wing media; here a little list:

The top ten misperceptions are:

1. Teenage pregnancy: on average, we think teenage pregnancy is 25 times higher than official estimates: we think that 15% of girls under 16 get pregnant each year, when official figures suggest it is around 0.6%[i].

2. Crime: 58% do not believe that crime is falling, when the Crime Survey for England and Wales shows that incidents of crime were 19% lower in 2012 than in 2006/07 and 53% lower than in 1995[ii]. 51% think violent crime is rising, when it has fallen from almost 2.5 million incidents in 2006/07 to under 2 million in 2012[iii].

3. Job-seekers allowance: 29% of people think we spend more on JSA than pensions, when in fact we spend 15 times more on pensions (£4.9bn vs £74.2bn)[iv].

4. Benefit fraud: people estimate that 34 times more benefit money is claimed fraudulently than official estimates: the public think that £24 out of every £100 spent on benefits is claimed fraudulently, compared with official estimates of £0.70 per £100[v].

5. Foreign aid: 26% of people think foreign aid is one of the top 2-3 items government spends most money on, when it actually made up 1.1% of expenditure (£7.9bn) in the 2011/12 financial year. More people select this as a top item of expenditure than pensions (which cost nearly ten times as much, £74bn) and education in the UK (£51.5bn)[vi].

6. Religion: we greatly overestimate the proportion of the population who are Muslims: on average we say 24%, compared with 5% in England and Wales. And we underestimate the proportion of Christians: we estimate 34% on average, compared with the actual proportion of 59% in England and Wales[vii].

7. Immigration and ethnicity: the public think that 31% of the population are immigrants, when the official figures are 13%[viii]. Even estimates that attempt to account for illegal immigration suggest a figure closer to 15%. There are similar misperceptions on ethnicity: the average estimate is that Black and Asian people make up 30% of the population, when it is actually 11% (or 14% if we include mixed and other non-white ethnic groups)[ix].

8. Age: we think the population is much older than it actually is – the average estimate is that 36% of the population are 65+, when only 16% are[x].

9. Benefit bill: people are most likely to think that capping benefits at £26,000 per household will save most money from a list provided (33% pick this option), over twice the level that select raising the pension age to 66 for both men and women or stopping child benefit when someone in the household earns £50k+. In fact, capping household benefits is estimated to save £290m[xi], compared with £5bn[xii] for raising the pension age and £1.7bn[xiii] for stopping child benefit for wealthier households.

10. Voting: we underestimate the proportion of people who voted in the last general election – our average guess is 43%, when 65% of the electorate actually did (51% of the whole population)[xiv].

it's no surprise that constant stories about immigrants, teenage mothers, the unemployed etc. lead to these attitudes; if one reads several stories about benefit cheats over a short period, one will naturally think that there is a lot of it going on. yet the truth, in all the cases above, is very different from the impression given by the media. it's also no surprise that having these ill-informed views about those groups people will support harsh policies against them; that is the media's power.

[Sava]

Here's an example of what this douchebag thinks is good for the state of Wisconsin: In his latest budget proposal, he is cutting $300 mil from the state University program and local school districts while earmarking the same amount to build a new stadium for a poor NBA franchise that most of the state doesn't care about (and who could leave the state at anytime).

Yup. Welfare and government spending sucks!!!! unless it is for corporations and billionaires.

[Hauldren Collider]

Here's an example of what this douchebag thinks is good for the state of Wisconsin: In his latest budget proposal, he is cutting $300 mil from the state University program and local school districts while earmarking the same amount to build a new stadium for a poor NBA franchise that most of the state doesn't care about (and who could leave the state at anytime).

I won't defend spending on sports franchises.

[Fake Boris]

I won't defend spending on sports franchises.

Unless the money came from union busting

[Hauldren Collider]

I have no idea who Scott Walker is, it sounds like a made up name, I couldn't be bothered looking him up and I don't care anyway.

Does that answer your question?

He's the chief executive of a place with a population larger than Denmark and an economy larger than Portugal.

Unless the money came from union busting

Nah, I'd spend that money on other stuff.

[DinoDoc]

Heh. The NYT thought Scott Walker was a time traveler for awhile.

[kentonio]

it's no surprise that constant stories about immigrants, teenage mothers, the unemployed etc. lead to these attitudes; if one reads several stories about benefit cheats over a short period, one will naturally think that there is a lot of it going on. yet the truth, in all the cases above, is very different from the impression given by the media. it's also no surprise that having these ill-informed views about those groups people will support harsh policies against them; that is the media's power.

The media didn't create that for goodness sake, it just fed into peoples natural suspicions and stupid beliefs. Reinforcement sure, but blaming the media for creating it is just wrong. People almost always get the media they deserve, especially in a society where people can chose the media they receive. Media companies are just trying to make money, and they'll do that by putting out the content that the people paying them (I.E. the public) want to consume.

[C0ckney]

of course there's an element of that; the right wing media need some raw material, and they find it among a certain section of the british population. however it's striking that all these misconceptions are for areas about which a certain view is presented to the public by the right wing media. you seem also to ignore the rather obvious point that believing these untruths will change people's views of certain things. so for example if people believe that there is 34x more benefit fraud than there actually is, that is very likely to affect their views on what should be done about it. if people believe that there are far more immigrants than there actually are, it is likely to have some effect on their views about them, etc. etc.

[The Mad Monk]

[img][ATTACH=CONFIG]177196[/ATTACH][/img]

Works for me.

[Sava]

I won't defend spending on sports franchises.

(I enjoy giving you props)

[Dinner]

The main reason Republicans want to destroy unions is not ideological but purely politically motivated. Republicans already get the lion's share of corporate donations while Democrats have several voting blocks which are large in votes but poor in cash. Students, the poor, the elderly, etc... The single dem constituency which does generate reliable large amounts of campaign cash are unions thus the Republican desire to kill unions despite the fact that corporations out spend unions 10-20:1.

[Berzerker]

Yup. Welfare and government spending sucks!!!! unless it is for corporations and billionaires.

it sucks even worse when they're pilfering the treasury

[DaShi]

Those are big words for you. Are you sure you can handle them?