Quote:
Originally Posted by zeek
Your chronology is screwed up. The Social Security Act was enacted in 1935, and Medicare was established in 1965 long before your economic comparison marker of 1975. Also, while you admit that there has been wage stagnation since 1975, you ignore the fact that the cost of housing , medical care and education [essential components of middle class life] has risen astronomically during that period. Meanwhile the wealth at the top has gone up exponentially during the same period. This economic disparity is a major factor driving the dissatisfaction on among the middle and working classes and the poor across the political spectrum.
|
You were the one that mentioned Social Security and Medicare, I was responding to your post, not giving a time line.
My point is not that everything is peachy keen. My point is that there are two factors at play here, on one hand human civilization is evolving, and in a myriad of ways improving the standard of living of the majority. On the other hand human government is corrupt. The best human governments are like vultures, and the worst human governments are like dead corpses.
Science, engineering and technology are all improving at a rapid clip and as a result our GDP is continuing to grow year by year at a very healthy amount. On the other hand the US government is a dysfunctional group of crooks who have robbed the American people. The idea that giving the US government more in taxes or power is to my mind, idiotic.
No one can deny that Social Security proves the US government is not capable of being entrusted with our retirement savings. The Trillion dollar war in the middle East is proof that they are not capable of steering the US into the way of peace and prosperity. And it is part of a pattern (Vietnam war, Iran Contra, etc).
Box 13, JFK assassination, Watergate, 911 are all evidence that the US government winks at sin.
And, in my opinion, the US government is the best government. We have seen how awful German government can be. Middle Eastern govts are far, far worse than the US. Singapore is only a city, not large enough to be a fair comparison, and like all dictators once he is gone what happens then?
Perhaps Britain can compare favorably with the US but I would suggest that is only because they are so small and powerless. If you look at them when they were the empire where the sun never sets the comparison is not so favorable.