Like was citizens united a failure of our economic system or government? One would argue Americans could have pressured their government to legislate that out but were too stupid to see that a cause of the problem: is that capitalism or a lack of education and active citizenship
No you’re on point we value greed more in 2025 than we did in 1925-1950. I don’t think capitalism or the system its self is problematic. There’s lots of room for social programs, regulations, taxation etc in capitalism to balance the scales. I think having an uneducated overworked population, and decades of political corruption are probably more of the cause than just saying “capitalism bad”. Personally I think having large top heavy institutions always leads to corruption and strong men so add any political system you want. With enough centralized power comes corruption and exploitation.
I’d urge you to consider most of americas downfall in the last 60 years was sold through fear not greed. Red scares, war on terrorism. Fear caused us to erode our rights to the greediest power-hungry grifters in town. If we were so greedy why would we continue to impoverish ourselves to form an oligarchy. I find the Marx argument on the subject, a bit old and lacking in modern nuance.
Do you think the average American politician is more greedy than: a Saudi politician, a Russian politician, a British empire politician, an Africa warlord chopping off kids hands? An Israeli prime minister? I also disagree that Americans enshroud any more primitive desires than any other human.
Perhaps it’s our culture itself. Not economy or government at all. Maybe id agree with that criticism. It’s just wild to say that 300 million people are more greedy than the other 8 billion people and it’s because we use the same economic system as Norway…
Well we had to define “the system”. If you ask the monarchists: democracy is the corrupt system that allowed the greed and corruption to take hold? Perhaps the uneducated masses don’t need political power because their personal greed and ignorance empowers the capitalists in charge?
I don’t have any fundamental issues with humans owning land and investing in businesses. I don’t think that specification is the one where we went completely wrong. I’d say socialism is where we went wrong (just for lols) we taxed the masses and gave the resources to the few. The government took power from the individuals and handed it to small groups of their friends. And they used it to entrench power in the government. It’s just backward socialism with the money trickling up. The Republican congressmen all got rich on Medicare fraud. It’s crazy how these socialist programs end up solely benefiting the people in charge of them.
Is that a problem with the economic system or the government?
Right. The question is: are Americans genetically pre-disposed to be more greedy, or is it their system that makes them that way?
Like was citizens united a failure of our economic system or government? One would argue Americans could have pressured their government to legislate that out but were too stupid to see that a cause of the problem: is that capitalism or a lack of education and active citizenship
No you’re on point we value greed more in 2025 than we did in 1925-1950. I don’t think capitalism or the system its self is problematic. There’s lots of room for social programs, regulations, taxation etc in capitalism to balance the scales. I think having an uneducated overworked population, and decades of political corruption are probably more of the cause than just saying “capitalism bad”. Personally I think having large top heavy institutions always leads to corruption and strong men so add any political system you want. With enough centralized power comes corruption and exploitation.
Lots to agree with here.
…but you’re very far afield from my question.
I’d urge you to consider most of americas downfall in the last 60 years was sold through fear not greed. Red scares, war on terrorism. Fear caused us to erode our rights to the greediest power-hungry grifters in town. If we were so greedy why would we continue to impoverish ourselves to form an oligarchy. I find the Marx argument on the subject, a bit old and lacking in modern nuance.
Do you think the average American politician is more greedy than: a Saudi politician, a Russian politician, a British empire politician, an Africa warlord chopping off kids hands? An Israeli prime minister? I also disagree that Americans enshroud any more primitive desires than any other human.
Perhaps it’s our culture itself. Not economy or government at all. Maybe id agree with that criticism. It’s just wild to say that 300 million people are more greedy than the other 8 billion people and it’s because we use the same economic system as Norway…
Well we had to define “the system”. If you ask the monarchists: democracy is the corrupt system that allowed the greed and corruption to take hold? Perhaps the uneducated masses don’t need political power because their personal greed and ignorance empowers the capitalists in charge?
I don’t have any fundamental issues with humans owning land and investing in businesses. I don’t think that specification is the one where we went completely wrong. I’d say socialism is where we went wrong (just for lols) we taxed the masses and gave the resources to the few. The government took power from the individuals and handed it to small groups of their friends. And they used it to entrench power in the government. It’s just backward socialism with the money trickling up. The Republican congressmen all got rich on Medicare fraud. It’s crazy how these socialist programs end up solely benefiting the people in charge of them.
Is that a problem with the economic system or the government?