Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
Democracy CAN be sustained with cooperation.
If everyone fulfills their duty, it can work.
...
That's the same theory in communism. It would work if everyone did their duty and was a good communist. The fallacy, for both communism and democracy, is that what people need to do to make it work, is not what they actually do. Any system that depends on people behaving differently than they're already known to behave, is a system doomed from the beginning.
That's part of the reason why the USA is gradually becoming fascist. Its present system of government, although it seemed to be working well, is unsustainable over the long run. The end result, sometime in the near or far future, is likely to be a system in which people who express political opinions that disagree with the government in power at the time, will be arrested secretly, and disappear. That kind of system seems to be the inevitable long term result of every idealistic system of government.
A well known summary of why democracy is doomed, is expressed by these well-known words: "Democracy lasts until the people discover they can vote themselves money from the public till."
The most likely reason why fascism is gradually taking over is probably that fascism is the kind of government that most closely expresses the natural social relationships in groups of humans. Our distant ancestors lived in brutal tribes ruled sadistically by the biggest bullies. Our modern families still have a lot of domestic violence in them, and are a lot closer to being fascist than anything else. The human skill most valuable for survival and success in most social systems is the ability to suck up.
Keep in mind, folks, that America was at its most prosperous when a person with barely a high school education could walk down to the local factory, get hired, and live a solid, if modest, middle class lifestyle - often on a single income. And with that job, that factory worker could buy a house, a car, and raise a family. My grandfather did it. My father did it. Both were blue collar workers with only a high school education.
You realize this is one of the biggest anomalies in all of civilization? The sheer size of the middle class in the 50's, and the standard of wage security they enjoyed, was never going to be sustainable.. whether from a housing point of view, as the population continued to grow and cities continued to sprawl along the Levittown model until suddenly workers were 1-2 hours from any major employers; resource usage, as Americans polluted their environment, used non-renewable materials, and generated waste at truly shocking rates; from a social point of view, as institutional segregation in every facet of life was just the way of life; or politically, as the populate trusted its elected leaders to represent them properly, even as the amount of money in the system continued to spike upwards.
In other words, the mode of life espoused in the 50's is exactly why we are in such a pickle now. Society will always revert towards the mean, and we're paying for the effects of our exceptionalist attitude.
You realize this is one of the biggest anomalies in all of civilization? The sheer size of the middle class in the 50's, and the standard of wage security they enjoyed, was never going to be sustainable.. whether from a housing point of view, as the population continued to grow and cities continued to sprawl along the Levittown model until suddenly workers were 1-2 hours from any major employers; resource usage, as Americans polluted their environment, used non-renewable materials, and generated waste at truly shocking rates; from a social point of view, as institutional segregation in every facet of life was just the way of life; or politically, as the populate trusted its elected leaders to represent them properly, even as the amount of money in the system continued to spike upwards.
In other words, the mode of life espoused in the 50's is exactly why we are in such a pickle now. Society will always revert towards the mean, and we're paying for the effects of our exceptionalist attitude.
Actually, our entire economic model is unsustainable. Not unless we're willing to gradually recess back to a medieval society where the 99% become peasants living in squalor with 1% of the elite living in palaces guarded by their own personal armies.
The idea of going to work and earning a paycheck is dying. In fact, it needs to die. We're at a point in our civilization where we have to start making quantum changes - especially in regards to energy. The problem is that so many jobs and so many financial empires are built upon the existing energy sources. Changing them now would cause utter financial ruin - for everyone. Abandoning oil, for instance, would mean everyone from the oil magnates on down to the mechanic who repairs oil-using internal combustion engines will be out of a job.
The idea of making money is now a major roadblock to any new advancement of our civilization. Everything now is about cost ... money seems to be the limiting factor, not technology, not physics, not vision. Plain old money. It needs to go the way of the dinosaur. I won't get into what our economy should be replaced with but I do have some ideas.
Suffice it to say that there are too many people, too few jobs, and technology is supplanting most jobs that don't require an advanced degree - and the few that remain will be extremely low wage.
I've said it before and I'm sure I'll say it a million more times before I draw my last breath: Economics is the study of human behavior more than it's a study of finances. We, the human race, have the power to make our economy follow any rules and laws we want it to. Economics does not control us, we control it. That means we CAN make changes to how the system works without the world as we know it coming to an end.
Not that it matters - because the world as we know it will come to an end anyway if we continue blindly and stupidly down the same road we're on right now. If we wait until we draw the last drop of oil out of the ground, for example, it will already be too late. I don't want to live in that world - because it won't be pretty. At all.
I just hope humanity wakes up and realizes that we are on a slow downward spiral - mostly the result of greed - and decides to do something about it. But I doubt it. I'm just glad I don't have kids because I wouldn't give a bucket of warm pee for their futures right now.
My son and his wife are both medical DRs. They have dual Canadian- French citizenship. This is what my son says. "When the USA goes completely nuts, when things there get so bad it starts to have a big negative effect here in Canada, I will take my wife and kids and move to Provence in the South of France".
Notice he does not say IF but WHEN the USA finally goes completely nuts!
Interesting that you say that. I moved to France, and my children's opportunities have been better here than if I had remained in the US.
How old are your children?
Since you are there, perhaps you can give us some first-hand information. I am always skeptical of the US' media, as it seems there is always an agenda in the reporting.
* the maldistribution of wealth & its effect
* the desperate plight of millions of people seeking a better life
* so few "haves" and so many "have nots"
* greed & concentration of power
* .... and Capitalism.
I think it's hilarious when a country like France begins having problems and -immediately- the right-wingers come out of the woodwork and start blaming socialism and the welfare state.
As if the picture here in the land of unfettered capitalism is any better - what with the unemployment rate among college grads at almost 20%, with 67% of all new jobs created since 2010 being low wage, and with only 11% of workers unemployed for more than six months being able to find a job.
I can only assume that those on the right who hate welfare and hate socialism and hate taxes are either firmly entrenched in their jobs and haven't had to look for one in 30 years or they're comfortably retired. If you were on the other end of the age spectrum, you'd see with no uncertain terms that the future of the young is a rather bleak one.
The even more amusing part it is that the standard of living for Americans has steadily eroded - we are now in 11th place, and one of the reasons for that is our appalling wealth disparity. Yes, our inequality is now on par with the developing world. Outside of the Third World, only Brazil and Mexico have worse disparities than we do.
Guess which nations have the highest standard of living? C'mon ... take a stab. Give up? Why, it's all of those horrible pinko commie high-tax nations that "are all a mess" (as someone erroneously said). Nations in Scandinavia, especially, are doing far better than we are, but only good ol' fashioned American arrogance, ignorance, denial, and that idiot concept "exceptionalism" keeps us from seeing our problems and actually trying to fix them. We're just too damn proud to borrow ideas from other nations - ideas like universal health care that EVERYONE has but the United States. I guess there is where our "exceptionalism" lies - we would rather make a person's health just another luxury like a big television or a sports car.
The welfare state is not the problem. I just wish people could see past their Cold War fears and realize the enemy isn't "godless communism" any more. Our enemy is rampant capitalism. No, that doesn't mean I'm a communist. I said our enemy is -rampant- capitalism.
The problem, ladies and gentlemen, is the profit motive. No, I don't mean making money is a bad thing. It becomes bad when making a profit becomes the sole, exclusive goal of the business world. Today, that's all that matters - corporations have no vision for America or its people. Today, it's all about squeezing every last drop of profit a business can legally (and sometimes illegally) obtain. Oh, and appeasing the stockholders, too, of course.
The result is a massive erosion of the quality of our lives. People seem to be completely oblivious to the fact that so many people are on welfare these days because businesses are subsidizing their labor costs with the welfare system. Yeah, just pay an employee $8 an hour and let welfare pick up the rest. Why should a business have to be responsible for its workers when it can foist their needs onto the government?
Keep in mind, folks, that America was at its most prosperous when a person with barely a high school education could walk down to the local factory, get hired, and live a solid, if modest, middle class lifestyle - often on a single income. And with that job, that factory worker could buy a house, a car, and raise a family. My grandfather did it. My father did it. Both were blue collar workers with only a high school education.
Can you do that now? Absolutely not. Even though I'm now making 4x what my father made in raw dollars, my spending power is considerably less than his - and I sure as hell could never afford a brand new three-bedroom house in the suburbs on my salary (but my father managed to do it on $2/hour).
Now, even a person with an advanced degree might languish in a low-paying, dead-end job for years before a so-called "entry" level job comes along. I put 'entry' in quotes because the new fad these days is to hire desperate young people at a shockingly reduced wage yet give them the responsibility of someone that used to make 2 or even 3 times the given salary. It's called exploitation, you see.
One of my friends has a BA in graphic design, but like a lot of people my age with good degrees, we have to take whatever we can get. She applied for a job as a receptionist that only paid $7.50/hour. But on the interview, they told her that, yes, we'd like to hire you as a receptionist at the stated salary - BUT - we might have you do some graphic design work for us, as well.
Really?! That's how the business world plays the game now. No, they don't want to hire her as a graphic designer for $30k to start - noooo, why do that when they can hire her as a "receptionist" (wink, nudge), pay her $13,000 a year, and exploit her talents in graphic design!!
And you dinosaur-esque Cold Warriors still think it's all about the welfare state and socialism. Hello! The welfare state exists because no one is paying the workers diddly-squat - unless you're one of the Best and Brightest (or simply have the right pedigree - you can be as dumb as a fence post and still get paid big bucks if you know the right people).
Oh, and I'm tired of companies making record profits while laying people off. Everyone knows that lay-offs drive up the price of stocks ... which shouldn't happen. Why should companies be given incentives and rewards when they lay people off, often for no reason (because after the lay-offs, the remaining employees have to work twice as hard for longer hours but with the same salary).
And whining about taxes is a waste of time. We live in a First World nation, folks, and that costs money. Now, if you would rather we live in a Third World nation with no services, rickety bridges, dams about to burst at any moment, lots of engineering disasters like collapsed buildings, a road system so lousy that businesses can't get their goods to the stores (however many stores that are left after most of them go belly-up due to a lack of consumers) ... and if you want a nation with no schools, no police, no firefighters, no libraries, no national parks ... and NO MILITARY ... then you ought to just shut up about taxes and pay them, because without them, we'd live in a Third World cesspool.
But hey, the modern corporation doesn't care about that. They'll rape and pillage America until there's nothing left and then move everything to China and let our nation wallow in poverty. Yeah, I know people will think that'll never happen. No way, uh uh! Well, it's already happening. It'll be a slow process, to be sure, but it's happening. Cheap Labor + High Prices = the destruction of any consumer-driven economy.
And guess what kind of economy we have?
I'll let you chew on that for awhile.
One Scandinavian country (Norway) is doing better than us because they have a low population and very high oil production and exports. USA's PPP is 40% higher than Sweden and 50% higher than finland and Denmark....maybe that would make you happy but I don't want to take the pay cut.
I guess everything is perception...I'm doing great financially and so is just about everyone that I know. My son in his 20's has made over $200K each of the last 2 years.
I don't want to live in any Scandinavian country, France or within 5 time zones of anywhere in Europe....if you do, why don't you move?
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
