News Do We Really Have A Say?

[The Albatross]

When the rule of law breaks down and those tasked with upholding it seek to flout it or undermine it themselves... yeah, we got problems.

 

[Anarchy]

Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary.

Democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard.

Mencken

 

[Deleted member 29920]

We are powerless. Everything is unbelievably unbalanced now and perhaps some solutions exist but they can't be carried out without many suffering and dying in the process, it seems.

 

[The Albatross]

"When all is said and done, Civilizations do not fall because of the barbarians at the gates. Nor does a great city fall from the death wish of bored and morally bankrupt stewards presumably sworn to its defense. Civilizations fall only because each citizen of the city comes to accept that nothing can be done to rally and rebuild broken walls; that ground lost may never be recovered; and that greatness lived in our grandparents but not our grandchildren. Yes, our betters tell us these things daily. But that doesn't mean we have to believe it." ~ Bill Whittle, The Undefended City

 

[crazyhorse69]

Do we have a say? Well I suppose we can say whatever we want, but does it or will it make any difference? I suppose that's a very relative issue really. I believe you might have a chance today in your life to say something, some small little thing to someone whose hurting or full of fear, or suicidal that pulls that person back from the jumping off point, but do you or I have a say concerning the powers that be, sure you can go vote, but it's an illusion a con job a very big one, giving the masses a false belief that their voice makes any relative difference against the established elites in life, the elites set back in their chairs and laugh and mock at the pathetic existence of the poor and weak, has been that way for centuries of human history and will be that way for hundreds of thousands of years to come.

What difference does it make? Sometimes I feel there's to many people in the world trying to make decisions for other people, whether you asked them to or not.

All the best, David

PS. your post for some odd reason reminded me of the famous quote of Williams Shakespeare

“All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,


Just play the part you've been given in life the best you can with all your heart and soul and let God sort out all the rest.

 

[Stickler]

@Anarchy am more familiar with the US boom-bust cycle:
Dead Link Removed

Regarding minimum wage:
http://www.bloombergview.com/articles/2016-04-01/a-basic-income-is-smarter-than-minimum-wages
I really approve of the idea of everyone getting a basic income, and letting employers charge whatever the market will bear.
However, that would require two things: one, the extremely well off actually paying higher taxes. Two...a population willing to demand it.
Plenty of people here would be happy to vote for a government check for him or herself, but none for that lazy ( insert appropriate epithet here) person over there...

...I approve of universal good healthcare in the same way: because I think someone's life ought to matter regardless of how much they make.
My mom's long-time friend died b/c she could not afford diabetes meds and did not want to go to the ER, where she'd get another bill she could not pay.
The woman did not manage her life well financially, but should that have become a death sentence because she could not afford meds?

http://pnhp.org/blog/2015/04/20/do-americans-believe-that-health-care-is-a-right/

This article seems to have an erroneous conclusion...and leads me to believe things in the United States will keep getting worse.
We've been effectively taught that government is the problem...no, cruddy undemocratic government and misinformation campaigns are the problem.

@Cj77 a lot of the millenials and younger give me a hopeful impression.

 

[Anarchy]

The trouble is that those perfectly good intentions inadvertently (but inevitably) lead to very bad places.
There's more over at the trump thread.

When anything is "free" at the point of use, price cannot act as a method of rationing demand (Check out the supply and demand curves in economics 101)
Demand for these services will therefore always outstrip supply (think of the fighting that breaks out when the january sales begin - people suddenly fighting over stuff that sat on the shelves all season at a slightly higher price).
and, due to the well known problems with monopolies, quality of service is likely to deteriorate and price increase over time.
For the pensions, all Ponzi schemes will collapse, it's only a question of when? not, if?

Now add in the problem of paper money being printed in ever increasing amounts to pay for those services. That reached its end point in Germany with the hyper inflation, wiping out any personal savings. In America, the collapse of the paper money is still to come. the dollar has already lost an estimated 98% of its purchasing power since the Fe'ral Reserve was established.

Most of the population is pretty ignorant about economics, and I'll include most people with economics degrees in that.

without that basic knowledge of real world economics, people who want to get things like state sector healthcare systems, state old age pensions and state sector schooling to work are left with what appear to be several options.

1) The people in charge are either bad or ineffective - replace them with someone good/strong who will make the policies work.

2) Some group is sabotaging the working or delivery of the policies - identify and purge that group.

3) The provision is being wasted on undeserving recipients rather than deserving ones - get rid of the undeserving.

In Germany in 1933, a sizeable minority thought that Hitler was the answer to 1), but not enough of them to make him chancellor. The faked "terrorist attacks" including the burning of the German parliament building (Reichstag Fire) soon convinced sufficeint people that there was an imminent threat to them, and that Hitler was the man to protect them, when in fact his thugs were orchestrating the terrorism.

In Germany, the subsequent answers to 2) and 3) were:

2) Joooooz (especially communist ones)
3) Disabled people, Joooooooz, and other "inferior" races.

The present day "issues" are very very similar in both America and Britain.
Try filling in 2) & 3) for the present candidates.

Incidentally, notice how 0bama care is going
note also that in places which have had socialised health care for a long time - it has always been in crisis.
Check out posts from our Norwegian, British Ozzy and Kiwi members regarding availability of therapy, and the hoops to jump through for welfare.

Check out the points 1), 2) and 3) in the quote for the ongoing excuses for those failures. rather than accepting that the ideas are fundamentally flawed and that failure can be explained with some very simple economics principles, like supply and demand curves.

 

[EveHarrington]

@Stickler

Millennials-----hopeful, yes. But what do (many/most) millennials end up doing when they don't get exactly what they want? (Serious question.) Are they able to see the bigger picture? (Again, serious question as many are unable to see the bigger picture no matter what camp they're in or how old they are.)

This is my greatest fear. Those pushing for one candidate will drop any support when that candidate pushing for the most change is eliminated.

I posted something similar in either the trump or the Bernie thread.

 

[Anarchy]

We've been effectively taught that government is the problem

as soon as one group of people get to control other people's property rights - then that control is going to become subject to all sorts of offers for a decision that goes a particular way.

that's all that corruption is

to expect any other outcome, is I'm afraid hopelessly utopian.

Politics transfers wealth away from those who have least ability to bribe politicians - to those who have the most ability to bribe politicians and bureaucrats. It cannot work any other way.

So in that respect, government will always be crummy and corrupt. that is its very nature.

 

[Stickler]

...Wow, that's depressing, A.

I gave up on anarcho-syndicalism a long time ago, myself...the first boyfriend. Not that he was? He was a petty con artist who got me to pay his rent then laughed at me for being such a fool.
He also stole from my wallet.
If someone can fake being in love with you, play head games, talk you out of your money, steal more of it, steal your friend's stuff...how can we have a society based on honesty and goodwill towards one another?
This is what trickled down to me over time, after much thought.
It's an odd way to come at it, but there you go.

... I'd agree governments are crummy, but lack thereof tends to get really ugly right now, as it usually is accompanied by societal breakdown.
That said:
Had not the Bolsheviks turned the Russian revolution into the ghastly abortion it became, we might have seen a democratically-structured anarcho-syndicalist country launched.
Again in sections of Spain it was tried, and nearly came about.

...so we're just ratf*cked with a tire iron, pretty much?

I think direct democracy would have to emerge out of the culture over time. As in the people stop obeying the fantasy.
Note: the men and ladies with guns are not illusory. But they all do what they do based on their idea that they are part of a government. They are given the idea of value for their efforts, also known as money...money is just an abstract concept of produced value.
Government is no more real than a corporation is a citizen or Santa Claus is really at the North Pole.
Governments ( and corporations for that matter ) are mythological creatures that exist because a large majority of people believe they exist.
Unfortunately, a large majority of people are not going to just stop believing....and they have many more guns than I do. Also a willingness to kill for their beliefs.
Hard to change how people perceive reality.

Anyway...
Like I said earlier, we seem to be becoming more personally mercenary and selfish, not less.