There are a lot of things about this world that are worth saving and not letting various villaneous people ruin. It is the product of centuries of hard work etc . Socialism and greedy capitalism have crept in with theirs lies and false promises to make a financial mess of such proportions that it may not be mendable. Lets hope the Old World order can adjust and change with the times rather than bringing the whole lot down on its own head - Samson like. Bringing in a new dark age. The American Empire may only have lasted 100 years felled by its own greed and incompetence, but may yet get it togethor enough to continue in a new form rather than plugging on in the same old way.
no kidding, It's a shame when you think about all that was destroyed during the Cultural Revolution in China. And the pathetic thing is, now all that would be worth more money than the new things that replaced it.
There is a great article in vanity fair about the problem we all face. It is called "California and Bust" It is also being discussed here under a thread "Michael Lewis Article on Public Pensions". I think it gets to the heart of our system. It is a long article but the quotes I like are: "Thereâs a corruption here. Itâs not just a financial corruption. Itâs a corruption of the attitude of public service.â "Politicians are elected to get things done and are prevented by the system from doing it, leading the people to grow even more disgusted with them. " "What all the polls show,â says Paul, âis that people want services and not to pay for them. And thatâs exactly what they have now got.â âItâs not that weâre insolvent and canât pay our bills,â says Reed. âItâs about willingness.â - THEN WHAT WILL IT TAKE FOR THE POPULATION TO WAKE UP - A REAL CRISIS THAT AFFECT THEM? âI think weâve suffered from a series of mass delusions,â he says." "Theyâd been conditioned to grab as much as they could, without thinking about the long-term consequences. " I found it a good read (albeit long) and food for thought. Our solution will come when ordinary people take back control and start voting as a block AGAINST the special interest groups that run our country. Two things are needed, an equal say for all people who pay the bills to vote on spending and a reversal of the "tragedy of the commons" mentality that rules our planet. We need a free and fair market for goods and services in the government. Would a system where we all directly purchased services work? And get rid of the middlemen who speak for us? (Of course, we are not there to see them speak generally.) Any thoughts?
This has interesting implications IMO: Moscow Says Massive "Holy Grail" Gas Deal With China Is 98% Ready http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2014-05-16/moscow-says-massive-holy-grail-gas-deal-china-98-ready So if world trade begins to shift away from a base currency and the second internet is being built to support trading in other currencies , doesn't the leverage in the US dollar/Bond system increase dramatically as the relative trade exchanged decreases. Without world trading, how do social program promises (not to mention past debts) get paid? Is Ukraine is simply a pawn in a larger world trading game? - then Europe has a problem. Russia will need another source of markets and currency to disconnect Ukraine's pipelines. Europe has an alternative currency to use to pay for exports and imports. A trading colossus of EurAsia could appear over decades. This scenario would be bad longer term for Canada (America's largest trading partner) I think. Britain's response would be interesting since they could shift either direction. On organizing patterns: A major issue IMO is that the internet destroys the need for brokers (like governments) and modern solutions work on elites controlling and setting distribution of resources (since the shift 10000 years ago to a society with excess food capability). There has been a shortage of leaders with integrity and an "we first" instead of "me first" mentality. Instead we need a (non elitist [ie not socialism or capitalism]) distribution of resources based on equals worldwide. Warring governments are obsolete now, since it is just a matter of time before a madman gets control of the weapons levers and solves the problem for good. Either we all work together, or we all perish I suspect. Current economic solutions and the associated market solutions create too much distortion in the balance of goods and services (and labor pay disparities) and lead to new violent flareups. I continue to muse about better solutions as I have time to. Here is a straw man idea: One new organizing pattern could be around a free worldwide internet with a new money system and fewer elites running it. Maybe a world regionally internet elected "senate" with population based reps to vote on issues like world health. How could we ensure that elites have no vested interest in economic system distortions like block voting, or profiting by mis-representing their constituents? Perhaps they are allowed to have no money or meager possessions, only the desire to serve and receive enhanced (but reasonable) pensions for life. Any other suggestions or other society organizing principles are welcome.
America is no exception. We will become a "Communist-like social state"... maybe even a Nazi-like state, depending upon the complacency of the people.
Consider how ridiculous it is to have one man one vote regardless of his/her maturity, intelligence, integrity or compassion.
If you are looking for a system based on present results then I would suggest 2 countries have evolved better systems. Can you guess which ? A. Singapore and Switzerland.
This website keeps some track of what senators are/have been doing. http://www.opencongress.org/people/compare# They voted against the proposal of putting their expenses claimed, on line open to the public. I wonder why ?????? A whistle blower here in the UK published our MPs expenses and guess what - over half of them were over claiming for public money. Anyone else would have been jailed for fraud and theft but ours are such kind people, They imposed minor reimbursements penalties.
In Canada, three senators were ousted for over-billing expenses and had to pay back what they owed. What was most interesting was all the support they got from their left behind colleagues. All continue to protest their innocence. Opposition parties tried to scandalize it against the party in power but it blew up in their face. The PM said something like - yes of course I told them to pay it back, it isn't their darn money! News media dropped it like a hot potato. One federal political party seems to have been using government funds to pay for offices for partisan work (A big no-no for years apparently). Their claim is yes they are in the same office but they don't talk to each other. Similar to firewalls in the investment banking system I guess. This was the party who lead a high-powered attack against the party in power to scandalize those senate over-billing expenses - et tu Brutus? His claim now ( similar to other over-billers) I did nothing wrong. (Apparently nobody in government ever does anything wrong now. Money just falls into their pockets and they dutifully spend it. It used to be different decades ago!) In Alberta, the provincial leader resigned (when almost all her party were about to defect). The bills continue to pile up including a secret hi-rise bunker for her and her daughter that was canceled by the new minister in charge of it, who found out about it accidently. (It didn't go through normal budget channels.) Eighteen billion or so net savings have been spent in 8 years and much more so now Alberta runs deficits every year. The budget accounting has been changed to discount that so that we actually have a balanced budget if you don't count the money we have borrowed!) - You can't make this s**t up! I am sure that the US has a much better handle on budget thing than we do up here. Given their dire circumstances, there couldn't possibly be any waste as they struggle to balance their books and would very likely scrutinize everything twice. The saddest thing of all is that most ordinary people don't even seem to care anymore. There is just too much of it everywhere one looks. I wonder why anyone would pay extra money for a comedy channel when the political channel is free!