[quote=Arraya]The trajectories are clear, regardless of “fault”, given global macro forces and clear severe systemic problems. Aggregate standard of living will go down, regardless of tweaking the system one way or another. In fact, finding “fault” is kind of like trying to find the beginning of a circle. Unsustainable means exactly that, it can not be sustained. Though, I can’t imagine those that were recipients of the biggest concentration of wealth in history are too upset with policies over the past several decades. People that still do hold tremendous sway over shaping policy.
I think, looking at many of the comments here, that one needs to seperate, and be aware, of the differences between political ideology, dogma, predujice, faith, self-interest and and, for want of a better term, I’d call, rationality, or an objective, scientific way of looking at the world.
This is, of course, extremely difficult, as it’s the ‘lies’ that we believe that scare me most of all. One of them is the ‘label game’. Calling one economic/political system, ‘free’ or ‘democratic’, or ‘capitalist’ compared to ‘communism’ or ‘socialism’.
The utopia, or public ideology of capitalism and ‘free markets’ is miles away from the reality of how the system functions in practice, and is comparable to the psuedo-socialism practiced in the great totalitarian dictatorships of the Soviet Union, or present day China. Regardless of imaginary “lines” we put between ownership status
Personally I believe the United States, as witnessed by the current ‘socialist’ bailout of the financial system, has definitively abandoned the core principles of official, capitalist ideology and dogma, and replaced it with the corporate state, where increasingly the market and the state, become one and the same…..[/quote]
Amen, Arraya. We have way too many people who believe that they want to be part of the political discussion, but unwilling to do what it takes to be a genuine participant. It’s so much easier to throw out prepackaged soundbites from your favorite politician, party, or talking head, especially when they engender a visceral outrage.
I’ve come to the conclusion that there are many, many people who are actually addicted to this political drama, for whom the “information” imparted by the televised talking heads, the talk radio orators, the blatantly one-sided bloggers is no longer enough. Neither are the virulent chatrooms. These are the ones that you see dropping “articles” with panic-inducing headlines into Facebook, hoping to get their 150 “friends” worked up enough to send it on to their 150 “friends”. However, if you take the time to question them about article content, they unashamedly reveal that they have not actually read it. Nor, for that matter, anything of substance since they graduated from high school or college.
