ThomasT said:
I think that this is essentially correct. Landowners, business owners, money changers, the wealthy in general, always have been and are always going to be able to exert an inordinate influence on government officials, imho.
I have no idea to what extent this might be true. But, wrt some extent, it certainly makes sense, and, from our common experience regarding the felony indictments of hundreds (thousands?) of government officials in the US, and situations in certain other countries ... we know that government officials have been bought, coerced, extorted, pressured, etc. Thus, a reasonable assumption is that any of them can be bought, coerced, extorted, pressured, etc.
Thus, no elected official should be trusted. This is, imo, the basis of the US separation of powers. But if all the governmental powers are corruptible (corrupted?), then who you going to call?
OK, I don't think it's that bad ... yet. I think that there are, still, lots of people in governmental hierarchies who aren't corrupted. In fact, wrt events in other countries, this seems certain. Wrt Mexico, for example, the good people pretty much get killed. But, wrt the US, it's much more complicated. More buffers. Lots of buffers. But the influence seems to be there, nonetheless.
I'm disappointed in Obama because he seems to me to have succumbed to the pressure of the financial sector.
Is the financial sector running the US? Imho, no. Is it exerting an undue influence on governmental policies and legislation, to the detriment of the country? Imho, yes.
One thing I have noticed is that many people complain about the state of things, but very very few want to actually do something about it.
Doing something about the situation means taking responsibility, and when you are dealing with things that affect more and more people, the the responsibility jacks up quite a bit.
People should be setting an example and thinking about what they do. If they want to step up to the plate and they think they can do a better job, then step up to the plate.
We both individually and collectively define the rules and I would bet that most people would rather convince themselves that everything will be 'ok' if that means convincing yourself that someone else who you don't know, who you can't read will do a job. In some ways it's like giving a random stranger on the street $1000 dollars and telling them to wait there for five minutes: you might be lucky to get a few people that will wait, but I wouldn't hold my breath for the majority.
Personally I'm not dissappointed with anyone politician, banker, or tycoon of any kind: I'm dissappointed in us collectively as a species.
When people take responsibility, it means that they are putting themselves out there and on the line for everyone to see, disect, and absolutely rip apart. But this is the cost of growth and in this modern age, we end up discouraging this and it is destroying us from ever reaching our potential as a species.
Instead of kids having to struggle and do 'real' learning, we tell kids how to get the right answer all the time: this means when they get into the real hard world, they snap like a twig and can't handle 'the real world'.
Instead of people taking responsibility for their own misfortunes, we encourage people to sue the other party to make a quick buck 'just because they deserve it'.
We encourage people to buy stuff they don't need and can't afford and they convince themselves that 'it'll be ok! I deserve it! If I can do it, then I should do it! My friends are doing it! It makes me feel like a real human being!'
With regards to finance, I don't think people realize that people are in different societies where people can earn their own money! Not only that, they can spend it on what they want! Some people don't realize what a luxury this is in comparison to what it used to be like! Hell the aristocracies of the past didn't even let the peasants read or write! Only royalty knew reading, writing, and arithmetic!
In the past, the peasants couldn't do this! You don't have this in purely communistic or socialist paradises!
But look what is happening: instead of being responsible with the money, people are wasting it and being completely irresponsible and look what happens!
But all of these things don't get me mad: what gets me mad is that everyone looks for a scapegoat, and the scapegoat is us both individually and collectively and no-one wants to hear this.
People want to fix up things? Send a message. People can get out of debt and encourage others to do so: this sets a precedent. People want to encourage businesses to do certain things, then let them know when you decide to purchase something.
Don't like what the big corporations are doing with how they effect the economy and jobs? Stop buying their stuff. Don't like the public school system? Teach your own kids and take responsibility for their learning.
It's hard to do these things because the first thing you have to do is acknowledge your own responsibility which means admitting something that opens you up to all kinds of criticism of any kind which you will have to look at objectively and respond to, and for this reason I understand why many people don't want to do it.
This experiment has to shown what happens when you give people luxuries and privileges that they don't take seriously and where they don't think about the consequences of their actions, and it's probably the best thing to see, just like it would be great for a drug addict to hit the absolute rock-bottom before they decided to get off the drugs and genuinely go clean.
