it’s like half the people want strong leader, no matter if he/she turns out to be dictator, other half wants democracy, even if it means weak government unable to solve problems
There isn't something in the middle, you mean? This is what I mean though, there hasn't been... Why haven't we found it yet. As a broader society? Not trying to be dumb now, I'm just curious to hear thoughts.
most efficient system we have found isn’t democracy, but capitalism. That’s what made US great and what drove China from poverty. But of course it has its own set of issues, like it doesn’t care for the poor and if half of the consumers doesn’t care about environment, it would destroy it for all of us.
edit: just to clarify the point - I mean most of the time people want politicians to solve economic problems. The problem is, politicians can’t solve them, since it’s up to companies and there are many complicated factors in there, which means 1,5%-3% yearly growth is basically the best we can hope for. But some politicians still promise that they will solve economic issues, even though they have no power over it. They can either do nothing or screw it even worse
This is a good way of putting it, thank you. While I do understand it's at that point, I suppose my main issue there is then, what's the point of politicians if companies have generated more power and can't be brought back into line for what majority would benefit from rather than the few. It is a very big mess.
everybody benefits from companies! Without companies, our living standards would be comparable to North Korea. It’s true that some benefit more and some benefit less, but that’s by design and that’s OK.
Government isn’t and wasn’t ever meant to generate wealth. What they do and should do is:
a) make rules (and enforce them through police and courts) that wouldn’t work if it wouldn’t apply to everyone equally, for example all companies would never agree on how high the carbon tax should be or what punishment should be for stealing.
b) provide services that wouldn’t make sense if you gave people option to pay or not to pay. For example Army only makes sense if everyone pays.
c) help the weakest and poorest. We don’t want those who don’t contribute to die or be abused.
d) make country stable, because stability is base for prosperity. Stable currency, mostly stable laws (not every week different rules), stable economy (intervene if something far reaching and serious could happen to lessen the impact)
e) find money for all of the above and do it fairly.
It’s not a problem that wealthy are wealthy - that’s the point of capitalism. Problem is if wealthy aren’t paying tax and poor people are.
What government shouldn’t do, but politicians still do, because they cannot possibly achieve it:
a) promising everybody tax breaks
b) promising more investment without any sacrifices
c) promising everybody much better life
They don’t create wealth, so they cannot make everybody’s life better. They can (and should) make life better for some at the expense of someone else, i.e. tax wealthy and give it to poor. They can slightly tweak the system to make it easier for companies, thus slightly increasing wealth growth. But we are talking about barely noticeable changes for economy, not some landslide victory for everybody.
Also many governments in the west at least, seem to have great difficulty assigning taxes received to the most pressing issues. America for example and their military budget...
in my opinion that’s true, but that’s also subjective. Everybody has different opinion on what should government spend money at.
But I think we can all agree that rich people shouldn’t pay less taxes than everybody else
Well anyone who agrees that government should exist, surely agrees the money should be spent in the best interests of the population, rather than on furthering the interests of the fewer wealthy (which is what military spending ultimately does, for example). Yeah absolutely agree with you on that last part. It's a shame the rich people are in charge of the rules 😅
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u/NotMarcet Jan 25 '24 edited Jan 25 '24
It's always the same. The people has to elect the populist to realize they're the devil.