Yet, it seems folks are. Optimism is an intrinsic belief that things will be better in the future. Rightly or wrongly, it is very prevalent here (outside of small pockets urban poverty). As I said, in spite of the Democrats here, we have an intrinsically more conservative capitalist system, in which the safety net is comparatively smaller due to cost of living, and worker participation rates are MUCH higher. (High labor participation is generally a good thing, right?)

Yet, it seems folks are. Optimism is an intrinsic belief that things will be better in the future. Rightly or wrongly, it is very prevalent here (outside of small pockets urban poverty). As I said, in spite of the Democrats here, we have an intrinsically more conservative capitalist system, in which the safety net is comparatively smaller due to cost of living, and worker participation rates are MUCH higher. (High labor participation is generally a good thing, right?)

Let me try this a different way. We are both listing things that make people optimistic are we not? Having a place to stay you can afford. High labor participation rate. Not living in poverty. Making a lot of money. Yes optimism is an intrinsic belief that things will be better in the future. What creates that belief however are the conditions the individual is experiencing not simply being in a certain area. If you're living in poverty in a high cost area you're probably not feeling very optimistic. You would probably feel more optimistic in a low cost area for a number of reasons. If you are doing well and at the top of the food chain you're probably going to feel more optimistic in a high cost urban area even if your quality of living is slightly lower because you know that there are tons of opportunities available to you.

None of this has anything to do specifically with Urban, none urban, Trump or Hillary. It's about the situation each individual is in. Obviously if you have a location where things are going really well and it's generally better for everyone then that community will be more optimistic. Again that has nothing to do with Urban or non Urban. Do you think people in Detroit are more optimistic then many small towns around the country? No, not a chance. It has nothing to do with Urban it has to do with what's going on in the area.

~Matt

I had no idea that Detroit was a high cost urban area ;). You seem to have moved the topic. Let's start again, since optimism is so shifty and hard to pin down. It seems (to me) that there is a prevailing personal fiscal conservatism in high cost urban areas (in spite of all those pesky Democrats), which reduces dependence on government, and personal fiscal conservatism has all sorts of positive results (savings, investment, more work,...), which lead to a generally more forward-looking and optimistic economic outlook. There, is that clearer? I'm trying to understand the anger of Trump supporters, and lack of anger among other populations (like the OP).

Sure, it's picked up a tick at the very end and I certainly hope it continues, but over my entire career thus far it's still a net disappointment in that more of my cumulative earnings/contributions have coincided with the market doing poorly, whereas the best gains on a % basis largely occurred back when I had a lot less to put in. I did use the qualifiers "more or less"; in that context 4 quarters is more of a counter to the overall picture. If you averaged out my contributions over that whole time and applied the average gain across that entire span, you'd end up with a greater sum than what I actually have, which goes back to the previous point I was replying to about buying a constant $ amount... in essence I've bought more at inopportune times, but not by design.