‘What Do You Think Is the Most Important Problem Facing This Country Today?’ | Hacker News Reader

‘What Do You Think Is the Most Important Problem Facing This Country Today?’

nytimes.com

5 pointsPaulHoule8 comments

What strikes me about this is that some topics become huge for certain times but wind up disappearing almost completely. I've looked at results for this question up to the minute and it's pretty amazing how "race relations" was big the 1960s, disappeared almost completely in the 2000s, got big in 2019, and have largely fallen off the radar today.

The news media companies promote issues. Race relations was hot since Ferguson riots and Mike Brown being shot dead. Now it is abortion rights since Rowe vs Wade was dismissed and Gay rights since transgender people are under attack.

They forgot race relations to push other issues.

Who are "the news media companies" here, exactly? Who is "they" and what do you mean when you say they "forgot race relations to push other issues"?

I ask this because I'm pretty sure race relations are still being discussed among "the news media" and I'm wondering how you came to this conclusion.

Asking for the "most important problem" concentrates the mind. When this was asked last month, for instance,

https://ropercenter.cornell.edu/ipoll/study/31119654/questio...

the concern about "cancel culture" and "wokeness" which are somewhat widespread are not even visible because nobody prioritizes those things over inflation, resentment towards the government, etc. Very few people report that their largest concern is Ukraine, Russia, or anything having to do with defense or foreign policy.

It should not be surprising when you realize that outrage is largely manufactured for political power struggles.

The economy, inflation and gas prices are out of control and hurting poor people. With a bad economy there can be a worthless USD.

That's a little hyperbolic.

A year or two of annual 9% inflation is bad but it is not like the situation in the Wiemar Republic where somebody dumped the money when they stole a wheelbarrow full of money.

(2017)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com