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***Opinion piece — personal experience only, no statistics implied***As an immigrant who came here as a teenager (late middle school) in the late 90s, here are a few “odd” customs that seem obvious to every “true born” American but plain odd to me as a naturalized one (note that odd does not equate to wrong, just something that didn’t seem very obvious to me; this is in no way intended to bash or offend, merely a reflection of my own culture shock when I first came and things I had to adjust to mentally as normal, regular or accepted):Eating popcorn is strongly associated with a movie going experience — must be a marketing propaganda working very effectively. Admittedly, I’ve too come to associate the taste of popcorn with the movies (or some performing art event even if it’s not the movies)People go to the “ball park” for recreation — i.e. to watch baseball games. It was an odd choice for me. I grew up going to the theater. I have found again and again going to the symphony, for example, that the median age is well above 60 — yet this is something that seemed very normal to do where I am from in Eastern Europe for families.Hot dogs and beer — this goes hand in hand with the ball park — this is apparently a nearly religious level, untouchable experience / tradition that cannot be broken or challengedSuperbowl — every February, everyone glues themselves to TV screens at the bars or at home (which must be a party occasion) to watch this very American version of football, a sport unknown elsewhere. People bet money on winning teams, and commercial brands everywhere shell out top dollar to attract highest level television audiences for a whole year for this most watched televised event of the year (exceeding audiences for the Olympics when they air)National days of just about anything — there is a national ice cream day and a national sibling day, for example. These aren’t official holidays but yet great opportunities for marketing (someone call Hallmark). And they seem to grow, with new ones added every year. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that we’ll soon have national days every single day, with multiple occasions, and you’ll have to pick whether to celebrate your sibling or, say, a cat day (perhaps get your sibling to hold your cat for a photo?)Christmas cards / photos and gift exchange frenzy. People go out of their way to mail you a photo of themselves and their pet / new child etc., even if you are completely unrelated to them (and probably don’t care all that much, let’s be very honest). People take decorating their house and yard (if any) for holiday occasion very seriously. Lights are taken down and trees removed immediately following the New Year, sometimes even before. Christmas music heard sometimes a month in advance of the holiday in many commercial dwelling spaces such as restaurants and shopping malls.Offices and cubicles decorated with a lot of personal paraphernalia such as photos of babiesPeople dressing their petsPeople name wild animals, e.g. someone has a pet fish / tarantula named Jack or there is a lion named John at the zooPink and blue. I had no idea before, - -I suppose, it’s another aftermath of a highly successful marketing phenomenon I refer to as “Disney culture” — but my own culture shock was the realization that there is a fairly acknowledged concept of gendered colors. I still prefer dark colors personally, e.g. dark green / brown, but find it tricky to shop for such colors at a minimum for girls (adult styles are much more neutral). It doesn’t end with clothes — bicycles, gear, everything MUST be pink, or somehow your child is no longer considered girly. Very odd.Bathing suits /bikinis on little girls — in the old world, all the little kids just ran around the beach bare, and there was no distinction in swimwear for girls vs. boys until adolescenceBoy-only and girl-only schools (vs. coed), there is even a YMCA and a different YWCA (and of course a JCC). ***nowadays, the gender / religious affiliation are not required to join***This one is strictly in comparison with the former USSR, but I found it odd that the schoolchildren would not stand up to greet their teachers upon entering - this was a sign of respect in the old country. Also, no uniforms and everyone wears something different daily, and it’s considered nearly unsanitary to appear wearing the same outfit 2 days in a rowReciting the pledge of allegiance to the Flag in public school dailySchool busesSpeaking in second person when discussing arbitrary situations, i.e., “You can’t just cross the street without a crosswalk, that would be jaywalking”. (More natural would have been a passive third person, i.e. “One oughtn’t…”Thanksgiving and Christmas are public holidays, but there is freedom of religion and separation of church and state (presumably). (Who or what are we giving thanks to?)JournalingIn middle school, I found it odd to have assignments on freeform writing on topics such as “What am I grateful for today”. I was used to much more either analytical writing pieces on literature or hard science.CheerleadingNerds, jocks, bulliesFraternities and sororities, initiation ritualsOnly having about 6 subjects a year in school, and classes would repeat daily. (In comparison, in Eastern Europe, even middle school curriculum would consist of about 22 courses, which would be offered about twice a week with the exception of mathematics, which was 6 hours a week in my class with intensive physics and mathematics focus)Lack of cursiveToilets — the facilities — are called bathrooms or restrooms; the actual basin is the toilet here.People sit on public toiletsNo permanent circus arts except in Las Vegas, “the entertainment capital”; traveling troupes are much more common, with visiting tours in big citiesNo global musical scene, with the exception of other English speaking countries. No one would know popular Italian, French or Russian artists unless they happen to be hobbyists or in the tradeDriving is allowed at 16 and even 15 with a parentGiant backyards, stairs inside houses, basements and attics, multiple bathrooms in a single family homeThe existence and appeal of suburbiaPeople caring about politicians’ personal lives, family etc. No one in the old country cared or often knew even the names of a politician’s spouse, much less care about someone’s lifestyle behind closed doors. That said, seeing / hearing a politician speak on the radio or TV was a daily occurrence where I was from, but here it’s only on a few select stations.Media / TV stations change from city to cityGun laws — another untouchable, near riot-worthy topicFreedom of speech taken to every level right or wrongHighway country and lack of central transitStates have nearly independent authority on everythingDriver licenses are much more ubiquitous than passportsLandscaping (ie the requirement to trim the bushes on your property)Political correctness (which nearly repeals the aforementioned freedom of speech)Obvious instructions existing solely for legal reasons, i.e. instructions on hair dryers stating “not for internal use”Existence of a return policy on most purchased items. Receipts given for everything (or offered)Lack of public telephones, especially since the widespread use of mobile phones, even at international hubs such as airports, where they still exist but sparinglyCollect calls and toll phone numbers. There is an 800- number for everything.State capitals may not coincide with a culturally or socially popular city. E.g., the capital city of the state of California is Sacramento, not San Francisco or Los Angeles, possibly its best known cities. New York City is not the capital of New York State.Tips for customary service, such as restaurants, on top of the listed menu priceBargaining at retail is typically unusual, unless you are at a place like a “flea market”. The label price tag is the final non-negotiable price. Sales prices are determined by the retailer / owner. The exception to this is things that are sold person to person, such as a car, where a lot of back and forth negotiating may happen; and real property where there is a whole complicated system of offering and counter-offering that’s fairly expected. Business negotiations of course are a whole other concept too.Grocery store baggers, shopping carts, spaces for shopping carts, escalators for shopping carts (the latter I've only seen in Seattle)Size and prevalence of (painted/designated) parking lotsThe sheer variety of flavors of everything; probably 17 different brands or names for the same (or similar) thing, yogurt that comes in colors and flavors, many different kinds of marinara sauce etc. Free markets, at its bestWeddings are planned for a year, sometimes years. People stay engaged for years.Baby showers (i.e. throwing a party in anticipation of a not-yet-born baby, largely to collect gifts / well wishes and celebrate with close friends and family)Planning one’s own funeral or discussing funeral plans with one’s relatives, buying a future burial plot of land for oneself or a loved oneHalloweenHallmark cards, birthday cakes for adults (complete with birthday cake candles), packaged gifts for adults (wrapping paper and all)Pension plans can be / frequently are invested in the volatile stock market. Government pension (social security) paid around age 80 if you were born after 1980, while the median life span is around 69–72Asking one’s age or income, or even a price paid on a house is considered taboo, but asking where someone is from is commonplace (at least in my experience as a person with a noticeable “foreign” accent)Strangers smile at you for no apparent reason other than to appear friendlyFormal invitations are sent to even closest family members for formal occasions (e.g. weddings, anniversaries, graduations)It is impolite to come to someone’s house without a formal invitation in advance, even for neighbors, close friends or family. At the same time, people often show up completely empty handed to a party or dinnerNo slippers / bathrobes worn in the house, usually full outfits and even shoes (this one I’m unsure about still). Pants / shorts worn as sleepwear. Pajamas / undergarments worn outside at school dorms in cafeterias, sometimes even out and about by teenagersSmoking bans in most indoor spacesPornography is legal (and highly lucrative)“Pot” (marijuana) is legal in numerous states(This gem might be unique to Seattle) People coming to the planetarium to get high, not to, say, learn about the planetsGraduating from high school is a very big deal and a pride factor for manyDisneyland as a must visit destinationThe concept of “projects” (low income housing buildings, sections, or whole neighborhoods — modern day “ghettoes”)Widespread homelessness and begging in the large cities, abandoned looking, urine infested subway stations in major central hubs of large cities (where they even exist)Traffic lights are different for pedestrians than for drivers, and the sequence is red back to green, skipping yellow on the change from redRoad signs are labeled with words, not assumed to be understoodThe mall is a favorite pastime (literally, way to pass time) for kids / families — besides the ball park, of coursePhotographing or videotaping live human birth, handing out ultrasound film to family members (or posting it to social media) ahead of a birth, and having the father heavily involved in the birthing process including cutting the umbilical cord (in the old country, men would have been strictly forbidden from the room, if nothing else, for sanitary reasons)Spelling words one letter at a time and spelling contests (called spelling bees), which reward correct writing. However, no dictation tests are givenTests are scored based on multiple choices. Open ended exams are highly uncommon (except in advanced placement courses in high school — considered college level and earned for college credit), and verbal exams or proofs are nearly nonexistentKids are taught to do “whatever makes them happy”, with little regard for consequence or poor choices. Learning from mistakes is considered a great merit.College students are considered and called colloquially college “kids”. They may remain on their parents’ health insurance up until age 26 as a dependent. Legal age / being of adult age is considered 21, but age to give consensus to a romantic relationship ranges from 16–18 by state. However, persons age 18 (considered to have reached adulthood in most places around the world) are able to leave the home to go to college, though most will continue to depend on the parents for support for many more years — but it’s customary to separate from the parents to go to college or as a sign of having gained independence. Alcohol consumption is restricted until age 21, even in the presence of parents, and parents can get in a lot of trouble for allowing it. In the meantime, college drinking / binge parties and overdosing are commonplace.Sports team jersey merchandiseTardiness at school gets you detention (requirement to stay after school, but not to make up class; simply as a punishment / lockdown for the infraction). Multiple such detentions can grant you suspension, which, ironically, keeps you out of schoolHomerooms — schoolchildren gather in a room 15–30 minutes before class starts. That’s it, they gather for order and roll call. There is no lecture, instruction, or class.At school, there are class times just to “study” called “study hall” with no instructionHigh school proms (formal dances), with all of the hoopla and the surrounding social pressures; sweet 16’s; graduating at the end of elementary school, middle school, etc., the tradition of throwing caps in the air at graduation.People loudly cheering in stadiums at performances, speech acceptances, etc., especially if it’s someone they know personallyA formal wedding ceremony is required to legalize a marriage license in many states, ie it’s not sufficient to have a marriage certificate issued by a city / state official. A ceremony may involve saying vows, witnesses, and it’s not just a formality but an actual requirement.In courts of law (including for example the naturalization ceremony, or a jury duty), you are required to take an oath to tell the truth that ends with “so help me god”Jury duty: anyone 18 and older who is a citizen is required to participate in the randomly selected civic jury duty, which is to say, to sit in on a trial if required. It is a great honor and a way to participate in the system.Politicians openly accept campaign donations; mud slinging to berate opponents running for office is widely acceptedMilitary draft is not mandatory, and people are paid to serve in the militarySitting on the floor / carpetPutting food plates on the floor (such as in an auditorium)Standing seats in concertsNo feral animals seen on the streetsPeople cannot understand the metric systemPeople set aside savings, buy investments, buy expensive vacations, but claim they have no disposable money (i.e. no cash) — this took a long time to comprehend in social situations. Cash in general, in large sums (let’s say above $100) is suspicious. You’ll be questioned (literally or figuratively) for either money laundering or simply assumed to be filthy rich because you have a $100 bill. At the same time, people sell vehicles for cash everyday. Something somewhere is still missing in that one.People will warn you about reporting you for things like speeding, and then go ahead and do it — right in front of youHonkingMany topics are considered taboo because of possibility of lawsuit for slander or offense (see “political correctness”) or worse. The legal system is full of precedents that set forth a new norm, erring on the side of caution and sometimes absurdity around the degree of the fear of risk. While Americans on average are considered a generous people, with many offering help to charity through monetary contributions, gestures of actual, physical help can be met with suspicion and as a threat. One bus driver refused to help an old lady, clearly struggling, come up some steep steps — something most Europeans would have done without thinking. When I directly asked him, why, he said, “Lady, I don’t want to be sued for improper touching.”Airline staff will not help with bags, likely due to liabilityEvery kind of insurance: car insurance, home insurance, disability insurance, even life insurance (for when you’re… dead)Mass produced food is the only known variant. There is no concept of truly fresh produce, dairy, meat or freshly baked bread unless you are lucky enough to be close to a farmFoods I hadn’t seen or heard of previously: peanut butter, donuts, salsa. Pairings of bread with everything but butter: i.e. jam, and said peanut butter. Peanut butter and jelly is a staple. Salads are “dressed” with a variety of mixtures. (We only had the concept of sour cream, mayonnaise or oil as a dressing.)Obsessions with diets: low-fat, low-carb, Atkins, lactose free, gluten free, etc. At the same time, everything or nearly everything is overstuffed with preservatives, chemicals, and hormones for longevityAllergies to everything: food allergies, drug allergies. People knowing what allergies they have. Runny nose usually indicates allergy, not necessarily a cold (apparently)The idea of raw milk scares most people. How _did_ all those other humans survive this whole time?Mushrooms have a funny connotation, not the marinated kind your grandma made. Nobody goes berry picking unless you’re on a special farm and it’s a tourist activity.Soups taste like gravy and aren’t purely liquidSauce or condiments are paired with everything, and meats and cheeses are sandwiched in buns. Hot dogs must be on buns, or else you’re having a frank / sausage (which apparently are different, somehow)People frown on eating organs of poultry etc. That stuff is fed to the pigs.Tea is considered a British or oriental tradition. There are tea places but many cafes will only offer generic tea bag options or none at all, but high selections of coffeeChain restaurants, malls, department stores, specialty stores that look identical. Every suburban town has the same or nearly identical setup inside a mallPlastic and paper packaging is literally on everything. Nutrition labels are required on most packaged foods.The size of grocery storesAvailability of out of season fresh fruit year round (imported)Ice cream is a very underwhelning grocery store item available year-round in all sizes and flavors (but tasting overly sweet for European taste)Companies are religious about customer service. Companies go out of business for claims of poor customer service.A Chinatown in every large cityPeople recycle, and compost organic garbage / yard wasteThese expressions have specific connotations / associations: “going for a coffee” — usually a formal meeting such as with a business acquaintance, to get to know them or gather information, whether or not coffee is involved; “going out” = either dating someone (romantically) or going to a party or social gathering, depending on context in the way it is used; “going up”/ inviting someone up: an invitation for romantic contact at the end of a datePrevalence of cursing as accepted lexicon on TV (censored or not) as well as in comedy, while nudity is tabooHumor aimed at one’s family and parents in standup comedy, humor about farting. Acceptance of public farting in general, when you're an adult, particularly in gatherings of males in watching football or similar activitiesLaughter and choppy diction in local news anchor delivery (would be grounds to be fired in the old country)People smile on their state issued IDGangsta rap culture / subculturePrevalence of Spanish language TV and options (to accommodate huge and rapidly growing Hispanic immigrant and descendant population)Salesmen that come to your house, the whole home shopping business, and telemarketingMeasuring cities by blocksBuilt-in closetsJoint bath and toilet roomThere are probably many, many more that merely can’t come to the mind at the moment.

I’m seeing the common theme in many of these answers that, to paraphrase, reads as, “Buckle down on traditional Democratic policies, because if we just educate them… then they will finally get it.” This is to suggest that the working class are, as a whole, unaware of the policies to begin with. It’s condescending because it assumes ignorance, rather than seeking to understand why they have chosen to abandon the Democrats’ methodology.The first thing I would like people to understand is the nature of the bubble of comfort and security they exist within and their complete disconnect with millions of others. Quantifying it helps. The libertarian political scientist Charles Murray put together a short quiz testing the thickness of people’s social bubble: Do you live in a bubble? which was brought to the public by a partnership with the Public Broadcasting System. The quiz isn’t perfect, but I have seen few better wake up calls for millions of Americans. I would encourage everyone to take the test then post your answer to How do you score on PBS' "Do you live in a bubble" quiz? Did you have any answers that you care to elaborate on? and start to realize how disconnected many people are from the red parts of the map.If I had to guess why the disconnect, first I would say this is due to an insular urban society which doesn’t encourage interaction outside of the cities or with the urban poor, one which is actually very lacking in diversity despite it’s advocacy of it, particularly intellectually. It also has a large part to do with “the other half’s” depiction in the media. Cultural representation in entertainment is almost entirely one way. They feature upper-middle class socialites simply existing as if that was the norm.Consider the lifestyle of shows like How I Met Your Mother, where the cast includes people who can afford to live in nice apartments in New York City for years without jobs before becoming a) A successful architect, b) a powerful and influential environmental lawyer, and c) a famous news anchor d) a world traveled painter and e) Barnie. This is an extreme example, but think of the last time you saw a show about rural life that wasn’t one of these people getting lost on the way to another city or of a toothless redneck depicting rural “folk” as uncultured and illiterate, and possibly cannibals. Honestly, when was the last time you saw something that didn’t depict people living an “average” urban socialite lifestyle, which almost no one American has?I hope you didn’t just make the closest jump you could to Orange is the New Black, in which one of the main themes is the quintessential personification of how the left looks down upon working class “white trash.” Ask yourself even this, in a country with 200,000,000 Christians, when was the last time you saw Christianity displayed in a positive light, or acknowledging the many benefits to society that people of faith contribute, such as being the number one contributor to charity, both Christian and secular, as well as the greatest volunteers and providing more to orphans worldwide than any other source combined? I’m not just saying this as a Christian, I’m asking you to take a deep and reflective look at how you’ve seen hundreds of millions of people personified in the last two decades, and how you might feel if whatever group you felt as deeply about as Christians do about Christ being represented as horribly as these shows present Christians.Given that, we have to address the nature of the, “If we could just make them let us help them, they would connect better with us.” We need to evaluate the way in which Democratic “solutions” to problems have looked from the bottom. While not a visible problem to the Upper and Middle classes, many of these policies have fundamentally broken many of the foundations of living and caused worse problems for poor and working class people. Here are a few examples:Policies beginning in the 1960′s with President Lyndon Johnson’s “war on poverty” can be traced to significantly harming the family. At a time where poverty was already steeply in decline, programs were set up to aid single mothers. What they actually did, however, was to incentivize fatherless homes by paying mothers who have no father present in the household. If there is a single value which most working class people have, it’s family, and if there is one predictor of a bad life, it is being raised without a father. However, when the government began replacing the role of the breadwinner for families, it caused many single mothers to be wedded not to the father (or fathers) of their children, but to the state, ensuring not only that they would be trapped in American poverty, but also that they had to vote Democrat to ensure their continued lifestyle.This affected black Americans first and worst, and we are seeing the fruits of it today. It needs to be understood that directly after the Civil War and even until about 1910, American blacks had a rate of so called “nuclear family” households, with the father married to mother both living in the home with the children at a rate higher than even white families. In the 1960’s, when the so called “War on Poverty” began, the fatherless rate of black households rose to just 25% and a researcher named Daniel Moynihan called the situation of black fatherlessness a “disaster”. Why this is important is that Moynihan wasn’t some sort of Conservative, but a left leaning researcher working in the Johnson administration, a man who later went on to become a Democratic Senator from New York, and his report The Negro Family: The Case For National Action (better known as the Moynihan Report) outlined the threatening direction that this trend in black families would be taking.Now, the percentage of blacks raised without fathers is at 75%, well beyond the disaster point of 25% fifty years ago, and their communities are even more devastated after five decades of social welfare programs to fight poverty. According to Larry Elders, this is the number one cause of deprivation in the black community, far more than white racism. Why this is important to understand of the rest of the working class is that now the percentage of whites raised without a father in the household (such as was my experience) is now at 25%, precisely where Moynihan called it a disaster for the black communities.Continuing on, New Deal programs such as the the Federal Housing Administration, created in the National Housing Act of 1934 eventually worked to create a system of renters among the poor where rents became much more common than mortgages that actually lead to wealth creation. They also cloistered poor blacks in extremely cramped and extremely crime ridden housing blocks (see the Projects).Another New Deal Program, the Social Security Act created a system where everyone would receive a fair retirement plan, though they did not pay fairly into it. Furthermore, the heavy taxation imposed by the Social Security taxes caused millions to have little disposable cash to invest and save. Even at modest returns, almost all investment strategies outperform government payouts over the course of a person’s working life. So you have many who have earned enough to still be taxed, but ended up paying almost all their disposable income on a program that won’t exist when they are older and need it.Minimum wage has been a deceptively damning Democratic policy. This week McDonald’s unveiled self-service kiosks nationwide. This came in response to the “Fight for $15” Minimum Wage advocacy program propped up by numerous champions of the Democratic party and backed by union organization.[1]This of course, means a conversation about manufacturing. The state of American manufacturing is a hard reality. In part, jobs by expensive workers were shipped overseas in one form or another and in part, a large part, because of automation. Automation has made the output of the United States continue to increase, channeling wealth from the working class to the entrepreneur class as fewer and fewer jobs are needed. This is most evident in the Rust Belt, where the name itself decries the state of economic collapse. There, excessive payments for factory workers spelled a great life for the few workers who could qualify, but destroyed the entire local automotive industry and the caused disruption and destitution for millions of workers. Left leaning news organizations do a great disservice to this problem with a selective telling of the history, such as this graph by FiveThirtyEight.It’s misleading because it tells the story of America’s outpaced increase in manufacturing output, but give hope that jobs are also on the rise. It’s interesting that they choose 2010 to start the graph, since a much more honest look at the state of American manufacturing can be found by following the American Enterprise Institute[2].By looking at the second graph, we can see that, while we have produced something of a half million manufacturing jobs since 2010, job growth in manufacturing has stagnated since the 1970’s and collapsed in the 2000s. This collapse began, not coincidentally, around 2001, the same year that China joined the World Trade Organization. This sudden and dramatic decline in the costs of labor markets, is what sent many of the jobs Americans had come to take for granted at exorbitant hourly wages overseas or incentivized for innovations toward automation to remain competitive against foreign corporations in similar industries.Looking to other parts of the country, high minimum wages have decimated entire industries outright. Consider agriculture. A look at my part of the country historically will show thousands upon thousands of acres dedicated to cotton fields and cotton production (and no, I’m talking about the 1960’s, not the 1840s.) My grandfather actually managed the town’s last cotton gin, as those cotton fields are now gone because no one can afford to hire workers and there is no technology to replace their labor. So no, industry hasn’t been automated… it’s just gone, leading to millions fleeing the rural areas for crowded cities and competing for the fewer and fewer jobs being created there.***This brings up the actual ramifications of the Affordable Care Act for the working class. Around the time the ACA began rolling out, I was a retail store manager, and wrote the schedules. Corporate had enacted a policy shift in response to it. Basically, most of our full time staff were getting a ceiling of hours where they were encouraged to get below 29 hours a week. For all the part timers, we had to give cushion in case we stayed open late, so I was never allowed to give someone more than about 22 to 25 hours. The reason for this is that a full time worker who never worked over 30 hours a week would drop down to part time status, which was good. You see, if we have only a massive staff of part time employees, then corporate has no obligation to provide now even more costly benefits, including health care coverage.The net effect was that I had to keep the full time people full time, but didn’t resist at all if they started to dip below a floor of 30 hours and, worst of all, make sure that our part timers had no chance of advancement. There was no force on heaven or Earth that would get them to reach full time status. They couldn’t even trade shifts because that could put them over the 30 hours if they really needed the money. They were stuck making next to nothing and couldn’t even work extra hours to make ends meet. The logical consequence of this was that many of my employees worked two to three dead end jobs just like the one I provided them… none of which were obligated to provide them insurance, which meant that they would be among the hardest working Americans out there, but still have to pay a government-mandated fine for not carrying insurance.The Affordable Care Act, in essence, incentivized thousands of companies to reduce the labor of millions of people because that was what was best for the company. I want to hate the company I worked for for this, but seeing the economic projections, as well as looking at the implications of John Roberson’s If your health insurance changed after Obamacare, in what ways did it get better or worse, and how did the cost of it change?, I realize that they were just doing what they had to for their survival.Prior to the ACA my family paid $350/mo for excellent health insurance. We were limited to the hospital near our house apart from emergencies, but copays were $20–35 and nearly everything was covered after a small deductible. It even had maternity coverage.Fast forward a couple of years once the ACA was fully rolled out. Insurance with the same group costs more than $1000/mo. No more copays and easy deductibles; every medical bill is simply split with the insurance company 50/50, excepting a couple of things that the ACA has specific requirements for. This is competitive with other insurers.In thinking about this just for John’s family, but then imagining providing that kind of insurance for thousands, or even millions of their employees, I can’t help but say I understand. I’ll be honest, the company I worked for wasn’t doing great. They were international, but paying their people an extra $650 a month by way of insurance premiums… that’s something that might have reasonably destroyed the company.I’m still bitter about it, though. Back in 2012, it made me sick to my stomach to know how much we were abusing our employees. I’m betting there were a lot more people in Corporate who shed even more tears about it than I did, but they weren’t as free to move as I was and couldn’t seek a lifestyle that didn’t make them hate themselves. That and other experiences were enough to make me abandon my business degree and focus on education and writing about politics and Conservatism. I don’t make nearly what I made in business, but with the money I make working for the schools and the support of my patrons on Patreon, I am able to provide comfortably for our family and sleep well at night. I was just so disgusted with a system that was portrayed as helping poor people, but instead created a class of people that went from poor — to hopeless.Millions of people who could have had insurance were no longer able to get it, and millions of others lost what they had. Millions more who had it are now paying much more for it, and suffering economically as a result. The Affordable Care Act created an environment where the largest hirers in America could not afford to provide care to their employees.Following the collapse of the markets in 2008, it made it such that employers had no incentives to bring back full time workers. Instead, they were incentivized to work around the new proposed legislation, they had to use shady and inhumane tactics that hurt their own employees just to stay afloat. And they did.This meant that the economic struggles of 2008 and the unemployment that followed never corrected. It just remained stagnant for years, with millions of full time workers out of jobs, instead juggling three crap jobs, making no money to save, never seeing their families, and still without health insurance. The worst part was how foreseeable all this was, or maybe it was how this was communicated as some sort of a win.On the subject of unemployment, this hasn’t even been honestly reported by the broader media. Today, I received a notification that one of the news agencies I am subscribed to said that American unemployment is actually at it’s lowest point in many years. This, however, is misleading. What we have actually seen isn’t a real reduction in unemployment. What we have are many people who are chronically underemployed, stuck working many hours at multiple low-paying part times jobs where they are never able to be promoted to full time employment status. This is a direct result of the Affordable Care Act.As I said before, part of ACA was federally mandating that only full-time employees had to have health care provided, so many corporations just cut hours and hired more people to work part time. If you didn’t work in the limited and specialized fields of tech in the few growth cities, you were screwed. Also, many people who couldn’t find good work just left the workforce altogether. What’s important to know is that people who aren’t looking for work aren’t counted as “unemployed”. Also, for reasons that I find dubious, the message of “more new jobs” stopped counting underemployment and completely ignores those who left the workforce out of the unemployment metrics. A better indicator is looking at the Workforce Participation Rate, which is pretty clear.This was actually a national problem, and not just local to small towns, but felt much worse in the recessed parts of the country.Finally, technology, one of the only truly prosperous fields in the United States are incredibly left leaning and growing more so, and are, rather carelessly, working to disrupt other industries in a process which creates great wealth for a very select few, while destroying the jobs and livelihoods of millions of people[3].How this looks from the bottom is that a growing class of young and idealistic technocrats are driving them out of work and ruining their lives in pursuit of their own wealth and political agenda. I’m not saying personally that that is an actual effort being made by the technology industry, but seeing the gulf of disconnect I have personally experienced while working in Silicon Valley, I can agree that there is at least a valid argument for many working class in Middle America to be angry with the technically savy left.Furthermore, considering the failing education system, simply saying that these individuals should “work hard” or “gain new skills” no longer works as a method to actually produce people capable of surviving in a dynamic job market. First is a public school system which fails regularly to perform its basic job. This, I blame (as a public school teacher) on the lack of incentives for quality teachers and the lack of removal of ineffective ones. This is due mostly to the saturation of teachers unions in the education system, pushing for greater protections for veteran teachers even when evidence mounts that they fail at their primary duty, educating.We also spend far, far too much on very few children engaged in tasks that do not lead to greater education. Additionally, the entire industry has shifted towards leftist ideals of education which place no practical value on fundamentals or accountability for the individual, leading to a generation which are incompetent, but feel great about it.Compound this with a secondary education system where students are force fed lefitst values that don’t in any way create students capable of being successful in the workforce. I don’t know how people of the left are raised. Perhaps you were taught that college is about “gaining new ideas, or challenging assumptions”, something I find odd given the nature of suburban life, but the mantra of the poor was always “do well in school, go to a good college, and get a good job.” This was literally told to us thousands of times in our childhoods, so when quite the opposite was true, it disrupted the projected life plans of millions of young people and left them horribly disaffected with the education system altogether.Perhaps this explains, in part, why the tech industry and much of the media, characterized by young workers, is so heavily influenced by the left and also why research showcasing how left-leaning agendas are failing so many people is regularly repressed by research institutions and the media. That’s just a theory, but the left has to acknowledge that the evolution of American education into a place of far-left ideas in no way serves the needs of the American people who need jobs much more than degrees in Inter-sectional Feminism.So, to answer for how people of the left can begin to connect with the other half of the country I would say that first, they need to check their privilege and realize just how damaged the working class has been, their family structure, their housing availability, their job prospects, and most important, their ability to be upwardly mobile in the American socioeconomic spectrum.The saddest of any of this, I can see how, in almost every case, most of the left who fought for all of these initiatives believed they would be helping us, but when we said, “Hey, this crap ain’t workin’” we were told that our experiences were false, and our observations were biased towards hurting the poor. What they failed to understand was that our observations were biased, because we’re the poor and we were the ones being negatively affected by their help. Had they actually been affected by most of their policies, they may have seen things differently. That said, most of the problems we faced were/or/face are due to severe overdoses of “help”. If the American left wanted to connect with the working class, they need to accept at least the possibility that these programs don’t work. Then they need to start looking to acknowledge their own biases in thought and practice, and finally to realize that the lifestyles of the working class is not being something to ridicule, but something to understand.If I were to offer any suggestion, it would be to read the works of two authors first. The first being , Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis by J.D. Vance and the second is Please Stop Helping Us: How Liberals Make It Harder for Blacks to Succeed by Jason L. Riley. Both peel back the facade of, “If only we could get them the help they need,” and help the left get away from the mentality of superior benevolence over working class in general.***So many people are misunderstanding my point on technology, that I need to clarify with an added item. No, I am not saying I want to stop the flow and growth of technology just to keep my life the way it is. I worked in a technology centric role in the Marines, later when on work in Silicon Valley’s technology industry made an effort to hang a pennant for MIT in my daughters room. It’s important that you know that she is three months old. She already has a library of computer programming, robotics, and video game design books for kids in her little library for when she is ready. That will surely grow. We have invested in this direction for her life, because I know no other avenues seem to be possible for her generation, so I want to start her early.That being the case, I am tired of the very selfish mentality for people disrupt any industry they can, rather than thinking about what problems they can solve. Taxis really weren’t a problem before Uber, but education is a problem. Yet they disrupt the taxi industry while education still sucks. Why? Because opportunism. The government spends trillions on education and half of it is waste doing inefficient things (I can’t remember if I mentioned I’m a public school teacher here people.) There is opportunity there to help support educators.Take this, for example, Grannies in the Cloud. Someone devised an app to make volunteer retired people able to link up with and tutor children across the world. This provides the one-on-one support all kids needs, but which teachers are completely too overworked to provide. My wife is a school teacher too, 3rd grade. She is responsible for around 50 kids and works over 70 hours a week for a job that pays ~32,000 a year. She doesn’t have the bandwidth to give each of her kids any more of herself. It just isn’t possible. Something like Grannies in the Cloud could provide the support that she needs to help her kids progress at their own rate, since the state system holds all kids back at the speed of the slowest learner.Working to improve these huge level problems, such as education through better and cheaper technology would also help greatly to solve the work problem by driving more people into the actual growth industries, something we’ve needed for decades. For that matter, why isn’t “job loss due to catastrophic technological change” an insurance industry policy that employers can provide to pay for reeducation? I don’t know why the great minds of the world are busy screwing around with reenventing the wheel, or at least the taxi, when so much bigger problems could be solved through the same use of their talents.So yes, I love technology. Technology is great and it solves the world’s problems. I seriously want my daughter to be one of the first people on Mars, or maybe just her robots. I don’t care, but I am more than a little resentful that the best minds in the world seem to be focused most on solving the problem of how best a wealthy and highly educated person can become a billionaire creating digital services for millions of people rich enough to own a new iPhone, while carelessly destroying the lives of millions of the nation’s poor.Be rich. Be as rich as you can. Design and build things, but do so after you ask how many people will you getting rich hurt, and if that number is far more than will be made rich, you really need to be held accountable for that. Can you get rich in some other way? Basically, what America, and the rest of the world for that matter, needs is a generation of socially minded tech entrepreneurs who have left their bubbles I mentioned earlier and look to the urban and rural poor to see how they can solve their problems, give them the avenues to elevation, and flatten the graph of American prosperity in a way that improves everyone’s lives and not just a few venture capitalists in Silicon Valley.Thank you for reading. If you liked this answer, please upvote and follow The War Elephant. If you want to help me make more content like this, please visit my Patreon Support Page to learn how. All donations greatly appreciated!Footnotes[1] Thanks To 'Fight For $15' Minimum Wage, McDonald's Unveils Job-Replacing Self-Service Kiosks Nationwide[2] https://www.aei.org/publication/october-2-is-manufacturing-day-so-lets-recognize-americas-world-class-manufacturing-sector-and-factory-workers/[3] This one stat exposes a fundamental 2016 divide between the parties

What value? Monetary, or historical?The artefacts recovered by archaeologists from working an archaeological site are not valued monetarily. A famous one may attract outside comment in the news media and then, it is speculative.If this refers to treasure trove in England, then first, it must fit that definition:Meaning of “treasure”.(1)Treasure is—(a)any object at least 300 years old when found which—(i)is not a coin but has metallic content of which at least 10 per cent by weight is precious metal;(ii)when found, is one of at least two coins in the same find which are at least 300 years old at that time and have that percentage of precious metal; or(iii)when found, is one of at least ten coins in the same find which are at least 300 years old at that time;(b)any object at least 200 years old when found which belongs to a class designated under section 2(1);(c)any object which would have been treasure trove if found before the commencement of section 4;(d)any object which, when found, is part of the same find as—(i)an object within paragraph (a), (b) or (c) found at the same time or earlier; or(ii)an object found earlier which would be within paragraph (a) or (b) if it had been found at the same time.(2)Treasure does not include objects which are—(a)unworked natural objects, or(b)minerals as extracted from a natural deposit,or which belong to a class designated under section 2(2).Ok, so its treasure, now what?Discovery and Reporting of TreasureWhen someone discovers an artefact or coins that she or he believes meets the criteria for Treasure [see: Summary of Treasure Act 1996] they have 14 days within which they should notify the Coroner in that district. Most people who find potential Treasure take the item to their local Finds Liaison Officer (FLO) who can not only aid in the initial identification of the find but can also report the find to the Coroner on behalf of the finder. The FLO will also report the find to the Treasure Section at the British Museum (in England) or the National Museum Wales, who will issue a unique Treasure reference number for the find. This Treasure number will serve as the constant identifier throughout the process, so please take note of it.Sometimes it may be difficult to determine whether the find is likely to be Treasure, and the FLO will wish to consult with colleagues before reporting it, because if there is no need to report it, a lot of time will be saved.The FLO will need to know certain information in order to report the find to the Coroner, including:the find spot: the Code of Practice says that the find spot should be accurate to at least a 6-figure National Grid Reference (NGR)date of findthe name, address and phone number of any findersthe name, address and phone number of the occupier of the landthe name, address and phone number of the owner of the landWhen the FLO reports the find to the Coroner, the finder should receive acknowledgement from the Coroner's office that the find has been reported.Then there are these stages:Coroner's reportConservation and analysisMuseum interestWriting to the coronerCoroner's inquestsNow to the valuation:Post-Inquest – valuation and reward paymentAt the conclusion of the inquest, the Coroner's office will inform the national museum of the result. If there is any confusion over this, the national museum may need to liaise with the Coroner's Office for more information.The Post-inquest portion of the Treasure process involves the valuation and reward payment. This part of the process is administered by the Treasure Section at the British Museum for all finds from England, Wales and Northern Ireland.It is important to note that the FLO is not involved in this part of the process and that queries at this stage should be directed to the Treasure Section at the British Museum. For more detailed information on this part of the Treasure process, see When your finds are declared Treasure.What happens to your finds when they are declared Treasure?There are several different stages to the valuation process. Below are the basic steps of the Valuation and acquisition process. There can be variations to this and throughout the valuation process we provide the opportunity for interested parties to participate, whether by providing your own private valuation, providing comments or even donating their share of the find towards the museum which wishes to acquire the find(s).The basic steps:The find is declared Treasure by the CoronerThe find is provisionally valued by one or more independent expert valuers.The find is seen at a Treasure Valuation Committee meeting where it is looked at alongside the provisional valuation(s).The Treasure Valuation Committee recommends a value for the Find. The interested parties are asked whether they are satisfied.The Museum is invoiced for the recommended amount.The Museum is expected to pay within four months of being invoiced.Upon receipt of the invoiced amount, the reward is paid to the interested parties.Commonly asked questionsHow many Treasure Valuation Committee Meetings are there per year?At the moment we organise 6-7 meeting a year. These are held every 6-8 weeks.My case has just been to an inquest. When will I hear something from the British Museum?Our office requires the verdict paperwork from the Coroner's inquest before it can proceed with the valuation of your case. Once we have this, we will schedule a provisional valuation and when that is received, we will post it to you. So the first you hear from us after the inquest will be when we send the provisional valuation to you.When will my find be provisionally valued?We want to make everything at this stage as efficient and transparent as possible. The best way to do this is to give the provisional valuer a group of Finds to work on at the same time. In order to do this we create a list of all finds that have been declared Treasure between one Treasure Valuation Committee (TVC) meeting and the next, and shortly after the TVC meeting has been held we commission all the cases to be provisionally valued. We expect the valuations back from the provisional valuer within 3 weeks and then we send them straight onto you so that the Find can be seen at the next possible meeting.Example: A TVC meeting is held 9th June. Between this meeting and the next, to be held 12th August, we collect all newly declared Treasure finds. The Coroner Verdict for your case arrives with us on 1st August. The next meeting is held 12th August and 1 day after this we commission all the newly declared Treasure finds to be provisionally valued, including yours. When we receive the provisional valuations we send them to interested parties and these cases, including yours, will be scheduled to be seen at the 1st October meeting. If the Coroner Verdict for your find had arrived with us after the 12th August then it would be collected with all others received between the 12th August and 1st October to be provisionally valued just after the 1st October meeting and in turn we would hope that it can be seen at the next meeting after 1st October.Important Information: You are given the opportunity to comment on the provisional valuation and can submit comments before the case is scheduled to go to a meeting. This is explained in the letters we send out with the provisional valuations.What are provisional valuations based upon?There are several things that the provisional valuer must bear in mind when supplying us with a valuation. The TVC would expect the same content to be found in any private valuation submitted by an interested party.The Valuer is to take into account what may be paid for an item in a sale on the open market between a willing seller and willing buyer.The provisional valuation is to be based on auction hammer price, not what would be paid for an item in a retail sale.The Valuer will provide examples of close parallels where possible and/or a clear rationale for the suggested price of the item/s.IMPORTANT: Valuations should NOT be framed as 'offers to buy'. Since the item/s will not be sold it is impossible to be certain that every offer to buy is made in good faith. Instead, the Committee asks that such 'offers' are rephrased as valuations, based on the points above.Can I have my find valued privately?You can arrange a private valuation during the valuation stage, and will cover the costs of doing so. The find has to stay in the safekeeping of the Crown, at the British Museum. Objects cannot be released from the British Museum so the private valuer will need to come to the British Museum, or assess the object from photographs. Please be aware however that the Treasure Valuation Committee may place more weight on valuations where the assesor has seen the object in person. We would ask that you send private valuation reports to us in good time. Remember, when you send us this submission we will forward it to all the interested parties so they have the opportunity to submit comments if they wish.The TVC would expect the following content:The Valuer is to take into account what may be paid for an item in a sale on the open market between a willing seller and willing buyer.The provisional valuation is to be based on auction hammer price, not what would be paid for an item in a retail sale.The Valuer will provide examples of close parallels where possible and/or a clear rationale for the suggested price of the item/s.IMPORTANT: Valuations should NOT be framed as 'offers to buy'. Since the item/s will not be sold it is impossible to be certain that every offer to buy is made in good faith. Instead, the Committee asks that such 'offers' are rephrased as valuations, based on the points above.Important Information:The private valuation report should include the following in writing:Whether the valuation provided is based on expected auction hammer price.The name of the Valuer.Details of the experience or credentials which make the Valuer qualified to provide a private valuation on your find.Whether the item was viewed in person or based on photographs.All parties have agreed to the recommended valuation, and the museum has been invoiced. When should I expect to receive a reward payment?Museums are given a target time for payment of three months, or four months if they are undertaking fundraising or making applications to funding bodies to gather the necessary funds. It can take longer than this if funding is coming from multiple sources. Please remember that this is just one case that a museum is pursuing and it will have other acquisitions and projects that also demand time and resource.Once payment is made by the acquiring museum to the British Museum, the funds will be processed by the Treasure Team and the museum's Finance Department. Due to the volume of transactions and the necessity for financial scrutiny, it usually takes several weeks before the reward payment will appear in your bank account. It is not possible however to give an absolute timescale for this, so we would advise against incurring any expenses on the anticipation that you will receive a reward on a specific date.Please keep in mind that this is a reward for your contribution to local and national heritage, it is not a payment for goods or services rendered. All efforts are made to ensure that rewards are forwarded promptly to interested parties. Thank you for your patience in this regard.Acquisition and ClosureOnce the interested museum pays the agreed valuation, title is regarded to have transferred from the Crown to that museum. The item may be collected by the museum and accessioned into its collection.When that happens and the reward has been distributed to the appropriate parties, the Treasure Section will close it file and regard the case as complete.Hope this helps.