Do Economic Considerations Influence People?

If economic considerations had any influence on people's actions, the following would be true:

1. The poorest states in the country would vote Democratic and hate the Republicans for championing the interests of the rich at the expense of the poor.

2. People would care about other folks' abortions and homosexuality a lot less than they care about not losing their house, benefits and paycheck.

3. Nobody would use credit cards which make things bought with them cost a lot more than they actually do.

4. There would be no competition for academic positions which pay very little for the kind of work they require.

5. People who are directly responsible for causing the economic collapse of 2008-9 would be in jail instead of in the White House.

6. Whether you have a nice personality would not be a single most important factor in whether you get employed.

7. Companies and universities would not hire people for high-paying positions of great responsibility based on nepotism.

8. Sweden would not have a higher suicide rate than Mexico.

9. Women would not give up their financial independence for the dubious privilege of washing some guy's underwear and hoping not to get dumped by him in later years.

10. Nobody would have children.