47%

Remember when Mitt Romney disrespected nearly half of the country, calling them lazy moochers?  It was difficult to hear, for me, as someone who for a while (grad school) paid no income taxes but still had ambitions, worked hard, etc.  The ambitions were not necessarily to make money, but that's a different topic.  Most people I interact with regularly are in the same boat - which confirmed my thought that Romney had no clue what he was talking about.  However, I now realize it is not that simple.  Living in Boulder, and overhearing some conversations in coffee shops, bars, etc, has mad me realize some things.  There are plenty of people out there with no ambitions, no desire to learn new things, no respect for science and knowledge, etc, who hang out in bars talking about garbage and slowly destroying their livers.  Yet they still want their smartphones, cheap and abundant food, etc (hint: these things are not possible without scientific breakthroughs).  And I've come to realize that this subset of the population significantly outweighs the portion that I consider myself to be part of.  And I'm kind of disturbed by this.