Comments on: Jobs and Votes

By: Ned

Ned — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:00:09 +0000

For some occupations (college professors, medical doctors), risk aversion comes to mind – if you are so risk averse that it’s worth to you to struggle a few years to get a tenure, or you chose medicine because of job security it provides, you are more likely to vote for Democrats (big government, social safety net etc.).

Incidentally, this also explains why median US voter is to the right of median EU voters (US was founded by risk-takers, people who left their old lives behind), and the difference between men and women (men are risk-takers).

By: Ned

Ned — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 21:00:00 +0000

By: Jim’s Blog » Blog Archive » voting anti capitalist

Jim’s Blog » Blog Archive » voting anti capitalist — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 22:43:50 +0000

[...] “The Fly Bottle” reports on the relationship between voting patterns and employment. [...]

By: Scott Wood

Scott Wood — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:23:22 +0000

Oops: I meant “gender composition of all of the other categories.”

By: Scott Wood

Scott Wood — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:23:00 +0000

Oops: I meant “gender composition of all of the other categories.”

By: Scott Wood

Scott Wood — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:22:27 +0000

I think that changing gender composition might say something, although you’d have to compare the gender composition of all of the other characteristics.

Two other comments:

To me, “professional” has always seemed the closest thing to “academic” without being actually in the academy, (or semi-academy of think tanks). Has the distribution of academic voting changed over the same period?

Also, I would have thought that an ever increasing percentage of “professionals” are professional in guiding people through the arcane intricacies of regulations. I would expect those folks to favor pro-regulation politicians.

By: Scott Wood

Scott Wood — Sun, 13 Apr 2008 01:22:00 +0000

I think that changing gender composition might say something, although you’d have to compare the gender composition of all of the other characteristics.

Two other comments:

By: Dr X

Dr X — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:51:59 +0000

I’m aware of nothing that would suggest that any relationship between personality (e.g. Holland occupational categories or the big five personality factors) and occupational choice has changed significantly in the past twenty years.

Here’s another thought. Maybe I missed it, but I didn’t see any indication that gender was controlled in these findings? While women have always outnumbered men in teaching and nursing, more traditionally male-dominated professions have seen a tremendous rise in the percentage of women in the ranks over the past twenty years. I wonder if this might account for some, or all, of the shift toward a preference for Democrats among professionals.

By: Dr X

Dr X — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 18:51:00 +0000

By: KJ

KJ — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 00:44:29 +0000

Agreed. I just moved from a relatively low tax bracket to a high one. When I started my job on top of my wife’s I put together a spreadsheet that, after factoring in taxes, childcare, and other things, showed I’d take home about 40% of my new salary.

Damn you government! A weaker minded liberal might have lost his tax and spend ways.