Economic fears lead to political inaction.

• Position: Your Life - Brief article

Why aren't people who care deeply about issues like job loss, health care costs, and college debt politically active on these issues? Why aren't mobilization efforts more effective? According to political scientist Adam Seth Levine, assistant professor in the Department of Government at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., who has written American Insecurity: Why Our Economic Fears Lead to Political Inaction, 'The discrepancy between the economic insecurity issues that people care about and their likelihood of taking action doesn't exist on other issues that aren't related to financial insecurity."

Levine's key discovery is that rhetoric about economic insecurity issues is self-undermining. This self-undermining rhetoric can look like a lot of different things. "Say you're an organization trying to raise awareness about--and potentially raise money around--the issue of health care costs. If your rhetoric reminds people about the exorbitant and increasing costs of health care--and thus the increasing costs of their own health care and...