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It was good until this paragraph. Sound monetary policy means you can actually improve your lifestyle. The GPD of the country will improve. The middle class was build on sound money. Not passing jobs bills, will actually increase employment.
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So I think it is more of a problem of being bombarded with propaganda and education than doing what will benefit them.
Goodness, of course. The longer this nonsense goes on, the worse it is for the people, politicians are just trying to preserve an illusion of people having easier life. I meant, people ask what they
think will benefit them. Which, because they don't really think, is some naive "evil capitalists are out there to get you, government is going to save you! but most importantly, we want bread and circus!" ridiculousity.
I feel people's own understanding of the world is the real limiting factor here. Even if the politicians were angels and tried to sell the sincerely best policies... I feel people simply would not buy it. They would still ask for stupid policies. So many people really do sincerely believe that price controls would help them. So many people really do sincerely believe that rigid labour laws mean that it's easier for them to get a job. Don't like high prices? Ban them! Don't like getting fired? Ban it! Nothing significant will change until people's understanding of the world improves (which I believe in the long run is happening). If anything, in many countries I actually see some politicians in certain ways favouring policies which are better for the people, than the ones that people themselves ask for.
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This government spending helps no one but government insiders. It is robbery.
Not so much robbery, but waste IMO. I mean I don't know so well how it is in the US, I'm from Europe actually. But I doubt corruption comes close to being as bad as just the utter
waste of resources on government programs and regulation. Even then, usually it's honestly not that bad IMO, but aging and lazying population in rich countries has created a situation where usual expectations of growth and increasingly lavish life can't be maintained... But short-sighted people are asking for increasingly ridiculous policies to maintain the illusion that it can be maintained. The reality will hit them sooner or later.
Recently, I have had some thoughts about how population dynamics might really be the biggest issue here. It seems easy to me to imagine how a large part of the population being old might sway policy more toward a nanny state. Not to mention the slowdown of (REAL) economic growth. And we have not seen such huge percentage of old people in the history in mankind, as we have had past few decades in the rich countries. Other than that, I really don't see a big systemic pattern that might explain the shift toward more government regulation and increasingly socialist policies, as well as economic slowdown in rich countries these last few decades. But this is just a random thought I had. What do you think?
Last edited by Vantek; 02-03-2012 at 02:49 PM.