And yet an overwhelming number of people in this country continue to vote for candidates who openly champion policies which are in direct conflict with their own economic interests.

My wife's sister came over last week and stayed a couple of days with us.  She is 52 years old, single and works at a call center for a company which makes home furnishings.  She has been there 13 years and makes about $15 an hour.  She likes her job, but she really has just squeaked by all her life.  She can afford to live in a small apartment, has a reliable car, and about $20K in a 401K to show for her lifetime of hard work.  She is one of those millions of people who are only one stumble, one health crisis or one layoff away from being close to destitute.  She should be the consummate Democratic supporter.  We started talking politics and she indicated that she planned to vote for McCain.  When I asked why, she gave the standard answers of an uninformed voter, (1) McCain's background meant he was "more experienced", (2) Obama will "raise my taxes, and McCain won't"  and (3)  She just didn't think the country was ready for a black President.

When I explained to her why these things were either not true or not really relevant, she was receptive.  And I think she really believed me when I told her that McCain's policy views were, part and parcel, not ones which would be in her best interests.  But, she said, even if those things are true, I am still probably going to vote for McCain.  "I just feel more comfortable with him", she said.

I suspect that conversations with me are probably the only time in her daily life between now and November where she will ever be confronted with views which might challenge her misconceptions and erroneous information.  She is, unfortunately, all too typical of so many people.  These are the "Facts don't matter, this is how I feel". crowd.  And they are in every corner of the country.

But at least she didn't say, "Because Obama is a Muslim."  Small solace that I didn't have to confront that one.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity"

Following up on mikeinohio's comment... I recall many years ago that Richard Nixon was running for President on a "law and Order" platform. (In this case his "law and Order" slogan was simply a coded phrase for his proposed massive police crack down on Black ghettos across the nation as an effective response to the widespread riots that exploded in the urban areas after MLK's assassination.) I worked at a massive NASA complex in Massachusetts devoted to advanced research for space projects. Several of my co-workers who were technicians were loud vocal supporters of Nixon mainly because of his "law and order" policy. We had many arguments, and I warned them that if Nixon was elected that the country would get "law and order" but we would all lose our jobs in the bargin!

Well, Massachusetts did not vote for Nixon, but he got elected anyway. For payback to Massachusetts, Nixon closed the entire NASA research facility with virtually no notice. (This NASA facility had initially come into existence at MIT at the very beginning of the Apollo Space program.) On the day that we were scheduled to leave the facility, I met several of the loud mouth Nixon boosters in the hallway who were moving their personal stuff out to the parking lot. I asked them, in retrospect if they thought their vote for Nixon was worth it. No comments, just dirty looks was their response. This experience convinced me at the time that the strength of pocket book issues among working class voters had obviously become a myth in America.

  It is much better for an economy if everyone shares in the wealth and has money to spend. Now we learn the lesson again.

"We have always known that heedless self-interest was bad morals; now we know that it is bad economics;" - Franklin Delano Roosevelt

there was a time the IMF issued reports for those third world countries, now it's for the U.S.A as the Feds are bankrupt-IMF sees no end in sight to credit crisis and hardest hit are the elderly.

Watch for smoke and mirrors (get your mirror before the run at the hardware store).... As government revenues decline trillions of worthless dollars will be created.

1929? far from it. 2009 - 2011 will be the new milestone...The Greatest Depression yet known. Many are in denial and most will not be able to cope.

Well, "You can't vote for war and disown the results"

When a few people suffer horribly it causes all to suffer at least a little bit, somehow and in some way. Poverty and misfortune bleed into all our lives with lost productivity, stress on government assistance programs, the sick skipping needed care and missing work, on and on it goes. We can hope a new regime will right the ship. However, some of us are fortunate enough to have the means, the money and the pedigree to assure our economic survival, albeit with renewed fervor required of us in our lives. For those voting contrary to their best interests I pity their choices and the suffering they will bring upon themselves. Then there is the perverse solace in thinking they are getting for their ignorance and willfully deluded judgment what they so richly deserve.

both in articles like this one and and in retail outlets, like mall standard, Forever21.