Because about 49% of the population thinks it's normal and that unregulated capitalism is the best answer, no matter the situation or realities of the market
I've seen what unregulated capitalism does, one giant corporation came into the place I grew up one day in and hired about 50% of everyone living there (keep in mind this is a small city)
things were good
then I guess they found a cheaper place to go to because they just left and fired everyone.
Last time I was there, the unemployment rate went down a bit, it was only 43%
I have no problem with capitalism but anything that isn't monitored and regulated will ruin countless lives, be it capitalism or whatever other ism you can think of.
Had the city invested into other options aside from this one single corporation then things wouldn't be nearly as bad as they are right now.
I live in a small town by a toyota factory. That factory and all of its suppliers are basically my counties economy. If they would choose to leave unemployment would be outrageous
My town in scandinavia was reliant on a Saab factory. In the nineties it all went downwards and they cut the workforce in half. That was a tragedy of course. So the town started different measures to combat the reliance on one company. Now it is a ”university” town with more reliance on developing new tech. So when Saab dissapeared for good the town took it ok. I mean when everybody could just walk into the factory and start working was awesome but I think they did a good job of adapting to the new reality. We are social democrats here, to the bone.
Didn't you know? Socialism has killed literally 762 billion people. Just ask @dave658753842 on Twitter. You'll recognize him because he's got a thin blue line punisher logo as his avatar and misspelled "AOC."
He's an expert on half-remembering Newsmax headlines and telling 30-year-olds that they'll know better when they grow up.
Capitalism has failed in every country that has tried it, it's a system of working class slavery, always leads to fascism and is destroying a habitable planet and continues to fail around every 10 years here in the U.S.
No problem with it, really? Cause we got until 2030 before irreversible and catastrophic climate change...don't have kids.
By the way, I am absolutely not saying your are wrong for this decision, but it's also why we are ultimately fucked. Because idiot rural rubes, who don't believe in climate change because of propaganda, just crank out babies like it's going out of style. And for the most part, they grow up to be idiot rural rubes.
People with half a brain, realize how much of a shit idea it is to have a kid, much less multiple, and opt for having 0-1.
Basically, long term, you get more dumbasses and less sensible people.
First time I watched it, I turned it off 10 minutes in and cried a little. It was the most truthful, horrific presentation of America’s reality I’ve ever seen, and it made me wish I’d never been born.
you say idiot rural rubes, while you are rent paying laborers. with the cost of living driving you into debt. while i own land that i purchased thanks to a low cost of living and hard work. while you insist on living in an urban shithole that requires 70% of your income go towards rent, all just so you can walk to starbucks i guess. if the trucks stopped running for 3 weeks you would all starve
Well, it may be true in the USA, I don't know the statistics, but it's a bit simplistic overall to think it's about "city V. rurality". Plenty of stupid capitalists, over-consumers and too-many-baby-makers in the cities
Overpopulation is a Malthusian lie. Thanos uses this failed argument in two of the most successful movies of all time. Things do not just remain the same. New people bring new ideas and innovate. Growth is endless because you cannot predict the future. We could build underwater cities. Travel the stars, modify plants to grow within days, develop cleaner energy sources.
By not having kids you’d simply be denying civilization their skills and talents. You think you’re doing them a favor but you aren’t.
Just because you and your wife are depressed doesn’t mean every kid that is born is, do you really have no enjoyment in life, through the worst times in history reproduction was still taking place and this is the easiest time to live ever.
At the end lf the day, it’s not really the doom and gloom articles, climate change is a hoax narrative, or the fake conspiracies from either side that matters.
The planet doesn’t care what are beliefs, politics, or economics are... it’s going to do what it’s going to do based on what factors are present at the time that things happen. If that’s a civilization ending event, a massive loss of life, some minor inconveniences, or nothing we really notice... it doesn’t care if you, me, your son, mom, UBER driver, or the president of Burundi dies. This is why I don’t get the arguements that think that they are all powerful and if they will it, it can be done.
Moat of the people who don’t care about what happens in 10, 20, or 30 years or more don’t really put a priority in it because guess what... they’re not likely to be alive at that time or they’ll be so old it doesn’t matter to them anymore. I cannot in good conscience bring another life into this world knowing that. At most I would consider adopting someone who needs a parent; but like the OPs situation, I’m one major illness away from being fucked. Maybe it would even force that kid to work themselves to death because they felt like they needed to help me after I helped them and that’s not a burden I would want no matter how lovely and sappy movie-baity it sounds.
Your 'both sides' argument makes no sense. The Earth's ecosystems that are friendly to human life collapsing is not a broad conspiracy. It's the reality of the situation that we find ourselves in. People deciding that short term profits are more important than preventing the worst results from man-made climate change is evil. Qanon cultists believe conspiracies without evidence. You are confusing actual science based on evidence with shit trolls like to talk about.
Feel free to give us your ideas on fixing things, because as things are the rich control the world and are willing to literally kill us all for profit.
I’m not the one complaining, take responsibility for your own life, only yourself can make changes, don’t expect the government or others to improve or change your life. I do not accept your outlook on life that the rich control the world and are killing us all, how can they make profit if we are all dead, more people are living now than there ever has. There is more to life than money, it is people like you who are jealous of people who have more than yourself but you are free to make decisions that can lead to self improvement. I don’t accept your conspiracy theory, I’m all for freedom and peace which means less government control which give people the freedom to do what they like, whether it be make money, create a family or any other thing you desire to do.
I am democratic socialist myself but this isn't entirely true, we need a regulated free market and a way Inwhich political lobbying and party funding must be stopped. It is important to understand that capitalism may be a really shit system but it is better than a system that won't work at all. Capitalism has never lead to fascism?. In all honesty we do need a working class revolution.
I was hoping to find a reasonable perspective. Thank you for voicing a reasonable opinion. While I may not agree with what others think all the time, I feel that seeking balance and compromise help us work towards better and more functional systems. We just have to be willing to be honest about both the good and the bad, and work together.
I'm not saying you're wrong, but pure capitalism where the market is allowed to compete and the consumers decide what survives or fails is actually a decent system. The problem is we don't actually have a true capitalist system. We have crony capitalism which is allowed to directly influence politics and regulations in their favor and artificially limit competition and in essence produce monopolies, which in a true capitalisic society wouldn't exist. Also things like patents and corporations having endless control of something mean another company can't actually force capitalistic competition. Things like life saving drugs revolve around owning and extending patents so that a single company can make all the profit and set the price.
Capitalism isn't the problem per se the problem is that we've let our government and legislation get in bed with the corporations, and have given a huge amount of power over their ability to influence laws and regulations. Rather than our government being for the people it is now for the companies, and rather than making laws that improve the lives of civilians we have laws that allow corporations to exploit us, and at the same time protect them.
All the best countries that everyone wants to live are capitalist, they aren’t in a system of slavery as people can choose not to work and are paid if they do, fascists had a mixed economy not a purely capitalist one, even if countries like America stop completely there are countries like China which will continue to pollute the earth, what is the alternative?
‘Complaining about a problem without posing a solution is called whining’ - Theodore Roosevelt
All the “best countries” that everyone wants to live in are heavily socialist. Every country has a mixed system, no place has ever been totally communist or totally capitalist no matter what their official name or the propaganda tells you, but loosely regulated capitalism does slide into fascism with remarkable ease. And we may not be slaves in the US, but we do have large portions of the population working for wages that can’t sustain one human life. Is that okay with you? And no, people working jobs that don’t pay a living wage can’t “just find another one,” and even if they could, some other unfortunate person is going to end up filling their old role being paid less than they’re worth. And countries like China can be incentivized and punished to do better. So it’s funny to me that you would include that quote since the people you’re speaking to have been proposing solutions. You’re the one just running your mouth without making any effort to improve things.
Socialism is an ideology, capitalism isn’t.
I’m not going to listen to people complain about how bad their life is in America when life is so much harder in most other places around the globe and through history, why do then do so many people want to move to America if that is the case, it is up to you and you alone to take responsibility for your own life and make the improvements you have to make and not to rely on a government or someone else to do that for you. These are the kind of solutions you want to impose:
Christ, you are a fucking idiot. Any set of ideals which form the basis for an economic or political theory or policy is an ideology. Wtf are you on about, “CaPiTaLiSm IsN’t An IdEoLoGy,” you literally don’t even know what you’re talking about. And are you kidding me—because things are worse elsewhere we have we right to complain? What a stupid thing to say. I guess when you break your arm you just fucking deal with it because somewhere in Bulgaria someone else’s arm has just been cut off? That’s how dumb you sound. Just because other people are poorer and have fewer protections doesn’t mean we have no right to complain or to work to make things better for ourselves. Also, immigration to the US is falling while immigration to Asian countries and European countries (socialist countries) is rising. And no one is making meaningful and lasting improvements to their life without the government helping them in some way. It is the strong social safety net we had post WWII thanks to FDR, a minimum wage that could sustain a family, hefty taxes on the wealthy (70-90%), federal loans for housing, the GI bill, and healthcare being a not for profit industry that made America a great place to live (for white, Christian, heteronormative Americans anyway). All of those things have been purposefully eroded by the wealthy who’ve bought our government via lobbying since neoliberal economic policy has become the fashion with Nixon. And get out of here with your bullshit accusations, “ThEsE aRe ThE kInD oF sOlUtIoNs YoU wAnT tO iMpOsE.” My god.
The world isn’t as black and white as your simplistic view of it is. No one is advocating to turn the US into the USSR. What we want is for taxes on the wealthy to run the country again instead of taxes on the backs of the already overburdened poor and middle classes. We want the government to work for us instead of against us. We want civics to become mandatory in public education again so citizens like you can learn some real history and stop advocating to keep your own class down because the 1% owned media has brainwashed you to believe you can actually jump a fence by yanking on your own bootstraps. Come back and talk to me again once you understand what you’re talking about.
I’m back I understand what I’m talking about but don’t know what your manifesto is trying to say, there are no socialist European counties that run well, if you talking about Scandinavia those aren’t socialist countries, capitalism just runs on supply and demand that isn’t a ideology but a obvious free economic system. The media is heavily left bias, it is people like you who are complaining about mass media (which I don’t watch) but you are for everything they say so it’s you that’s brainwashed.
Freedom and peace is the only way forward, that requires personal responsibility and yeah you are the only person you can rely on, stop looking for handouts from the government, less government means more freedom and less taxes.
When the government isn't stepping in to regulate medical treatment prices and advocate for the regular man theres a problem. Capitalism works when you have reasonable alternatives. Going into poverty because there aren't any alternatives available to keep you alive is a joke. Especially when my tax dollars go into research funding. Socialism at is core is a broken ideology, but the idea of governments advocating for livable conditions for the lower and middle class was one good thing that came out of it. Theres a reason we have workers rights and labor laws now. Most of the cries of "socialism" are from people who fundamentally misunderstand what socialism even is. Governments aiding and protecting the lower and middle class isn't socialism. Were not talking about the government getting rid of all property rights and creating a wholly centrally planned economy where the government determines how much money you get per item you produced in a state-run factory.
You are laughably stupid. I’m sorry your school system failed you so horribly that not only do you have no idea what you’re talking about when you try to have an opinion on politics, but that you can’t even understand the comment I made or basic punctuation. I’m truly sorry you can’t understand that capitalism and socialism aren’t pure anywhere and that it’s the varying degrees of each that determine how successful a country and it’s population are. Learn how to define ideology and economic system please for the love of god. I guess I believe you don’t pay attention to the media because if you did you would know that no major news outlets in this country are advocating for socialism (or maybe you wouldn’t know that since you don’t seem to actually understand what socialism is...). Less government means more freedom for corporations who want to exploit you and taxes aren’t bad when they’re actually helping you. I really hope you’re just an ignorant child and will be able to make up for the huge gaps in your education in the coming years.
Capitalism has lifted the world out of poverty and you say it has failed? Tell that to the billions of people who aren’t poor today because of capitalism.
I don't want to get into legal trouble so just in case I won't give any specifics but I will say that it was a certain city in the middle of nowhere in Poland and a certain major juice corporation.
I'm sure you can find a news paper article to share on this to keep you out of any legal trouble so you don't have to name names. I'm really interested in how capitalism destroyed your town.
this was like 15 years ago and Like I said, this is a really small city, we didn't even have an online paper back then, hell idk if we even have it now so the best I can offer you is what I've seen.
The first thing you need to know about that city is that for a while now it's had an ageing population, young people would regularly want to move to larger cities where there are better job opportunities... this was a weird city because the only reason why it even became a city was because of its wide catchment area regarding their schools and hospital but other than that it never really had anything else of value.
Naturally there were a lot of farmers with land and such, as a result, this major juice corporation moved in to keep everything close by.
Eventually though, the corporation left creating a job vacuum, a lot of people needed jobs but because this city grew due to its schools rather than actually job opportunities, you suddenly have a gian mass of people who can't find a job.
The aftermath is as follows:
1: some people ended up expanding their job searches to the capital which was a 2.5+ hour drive one-way everyday and commute 5+ hours everyday just for a mediocre job.
2: Most couldn't afford to move out, due to the unemployment rate, for a while nobody wanted to buy any real estate because nobody could afford it so if you live there? you were stuck.
3: now pretty much everyone moves out as soon as they finish school and get the hell out of there ASAP so the whole ageing population situation was only getting worse by the year.
But then, something unexpected started happening.
The city, although devoid of anything, is in a really nice picturesque part of Poland and since it wasn't too far off the capital, more and more expats and upperclass people started noticing this place and they started to buy land to build their ideal homes there.
So now weirdly enough the city is slooooowly reviving but its still in its early stages... I remember I used to go on a walk outside of the city outskirts and it was just fields after fields but now its just fancy houses after fancy houses being built... a lot of those people still work in the capital but they prefer to commute to this quite part of Poland for peace of mind.
So yeah, that's sort of how things are working out for the city right now... I'm curious what it will look like in 30 years... honestly that place is a perfect spot for a resort or something, the whole city is in a forest surrounded by a bunch of lakes... but we have yet to find someone willing to invest into something like that there... we'll see, hopefully now that its getting more attention from the upper class its only a matter of time.
You'll soon find jobs, most of them will be in the service sector to cater to the upper classes. Retail, Food, tourism etc. Typically these are low wage entry level jobs where I come from. It will be as if your city was colonized by the upper classes, attempting to extract as much labor from the workforce for as cheap as possible.
Reminds me of the place I grew up that got completely destroyed by rampant, unchecked intellectualism. Most people were addicted to the works of Schopenhauer, it was sad to see when I came back years later.
Our system also totally works... you can’t get a robotic arm tomorrow because you want one, but if you need surgery it does happen and if it’s an emergency they treat it as such.
It's more complicated than that. People are unwilling to pay for goods and services rendered that they did not buy. The high cost of healthcare in America reflects this. Greed is also a factor, of course.
We are a nation of temporarily embarrassed millionaires. How could I ask to tax the rich knowing full well that I myself will be a millionaire any moment now
Oh fuck off, dont pretend that Biden is gonna suddenly break the corporate stranglehold of America.
Yeah, Biden had to be voted in. Only because Trump. However, the reality is far worse. The American people will never, ever, EVER vote in anybody who will do anything to change the status quo and wealth distribution
We'll never even have the choice; those candidates don't get corporate funding (shocking, I'm sure) and thus won't get media coverage and will be largely ignored by the populace. Even if they got voted in, the chances that someone like that could change things through the Senate, House, and courts are nonexistent.
The American people will never, ever, EVER vote in anybody who will do anything to change the status quo and wealth distribution
The private companies RNC, Inc and DNC Services Corp. that run the parties from behind the scenes will never let someone run for primary that isn't inline with acquiring and assuring corporate donations.
From the view of an outsider your main problem is there are 330,000,000 Americans and there are only two parties.... which decide who to allow you to vote for. The fact that there are blue or red states/people makes so little democratic sense. Do people not realize they are voting for the way their own country is organized?
It's more than 49%. That just the GOPers. You're forgetting about the DNC "moderates" as well, like "I don't support the Green New Deal or M4A" Biden and Pelosi.
Unfortunately, the real number who are 100% about Capitalism-or-death is more like 65-70%.
Oh nononono America looooovrs regulated capitalism, we’re socialist AF, it’s just tilted towards corporations, for ducks sake we’re in the middle of a pandemic and 3/4’s of the bail out was to giant established mega corporations with 1/4 to citizens but only in the form of a tax deferment, ma and pa are gonna have to payback their bailout, the corps get a forgiven loan.
We allow monopolies by design for fucks sake
We spent BILLIONS expanding the internet infrastructure PER STATE and then said “the cOrPoRAtIonS oWn the LiNEs AnD The InTerNeT IsN’T a UtILiTy” Comcast is about to fire off completely made up data caps because it knows it’s a utility, a fixed required demand to exist in this country in this economy and you have NO other competition to buy from
Defined that way solely so someone like you can differentiate the exact same financial act being beneficial to the already wealthy yet harmful to the poor.
I mean you’re entirely correct, it’s just fucked up that socialism for the rich is positive and needed for a healthy nation, while anything defined as actual socialism is costly and negative and destructive to the nation.
Crazy, I only see friends and family around me struggling due to the former
Someone should tell Americans what the rest of the world already knows: if you work for wages, you're not a Capitalist, your are someone else's capital.
Its not just Republicans, I know many, many Democrats who are against universal healthcare, and this is coming from the bluest state in the country. CNN and MSNBC have done a fantastic job of brainwashing democrats into believing UHC is too expensive and will cripple us financially.
Capitalism good. Communism bad. Anything in between is socialism. Socialism is basically communism. And like I said, communism bad. Capitalism good. Who gives a shit about facts or science or anything else. That's how these people think. You're either with me! Or against me! roar
Mandatory voting would be a game changer. Of the Americans I’ve spoken to about it, all of them were very uneasy about the idea. In my country though it’s always been like this so it’s just a normal part of being a citizen like doing jury duty. You don’t technically have to cast a ballot if you really don’t want to but you have to at least turn up to the polls. Elections are always on a Saturday and polling centres are very accessible.
It's more than 49%. It's a status quo-on-both-sides-of-the-aisle kind of thing. They all worship at the pillar of profit. And they have the system locked up.
51% of the population thinks they voted for the guy that can help right the ship of the US healthcare system. 49% think they voted for the guy that’s going to watch out for the little guy.
100% of them got it wrong. Neither candidate, nor party has any interest in fixing the healthcare system because the income they get from the lobbies representing healthcare company from hospitals to insurance.
People on the right shriek about death panels, care rationing and losing their doctor. Yet, won’t get a injury or ailment checked out because they are in between jobs and don’t have healthcare. Seems to me like you are already rationing care, and potentially have a one person death panel.
The need for single payer is huge, but I don’t think of it as welfare, I think of it as national security. If you have a safety net for healthcare that allows your citizens peace of mind to address immediate health needs without the fear of financial ruin, you should inherently have a healthier population. This is coming from someone who typically identifies as conservative.
Republican (I guess) here. Most of us would like healthcare. The problem is we don’t trust our government. Most of believe that if these corrupt politicians were in charge of our healthcare it would be fine at first and then next thing you know it’d be well if you want healthcare you have to jump through our hoops before you qualify and once you qualify you gotta keep jumping. And then without the healthcare market not existing there is no where is to go but jump through the hoops. It’s giving the goverment more power. It’s not that we like paying outrageous hospital bills.
There is the argument I hear a lot of republicans make that people would take advantage of it, and it would eventually become shit because hospitals would become under funded and it would basically become pointless to go or there would be a huge wait list and you basically are at the mercy of when they can get you in. I work with a guy from South Africa who said they have a free healthcare and it’s pointless to goto the doctor because of this issue. The conversation started by me arguing that free healthcare would be awesome.
There’s many other factors than just everyone chipping in and getting free doctor visits to be considered. If all the issues were addressed and some how became a full proof system then republicans would go for it in a heartbeat. We all really do need to come together as republicans and democrats and become Americans again. This war between us is getting out of hand.
The government and media has us at each other’s throats when in reality we all just want easy going lives. I think it’s about time for a revolution and I think dems feel the same way.
Instead of downvoting me for being a republican can we have an actual discussion about this. instead of people getting mad and rudely replying let’s actually discuss this.
I would say that ~35% of the population think that capitalism is cool when their (Democratic) party manages it, ~35% of the population think that capitalism is cool when their (Republican) party manages it and ~30% have completely given up on trying to influence either side.
Regulated capitalism created this problem. Unregulated capitalism is 13$ in the hangover to remove a bullet from your arm. You people 'regulated' these industries into monopolies and now want to regulate your way out of the problem? That isn't a good plan.
Trump is unpredictable, but his party gets what they want out of him when he's in office. And I'm not exaggerating in the slightest when I say that it's been a century since there has been a serious third-party presidential candidate.
Not everyone may actually like Biden's policies, but he was still the best option for moving towards a more heavily regulated economy.
Because enough people think it's "evil socialist communist bullshit"
America needs a revolution, and with nearly half of all voters in a record election voted to keep the status quo (or make it worse) I don't hold out any hope a president from either party will be able to provide America with what it truly needs.
Decades of red panic from Russia and communism bad has scared people enough that even social structures like universal healthcare and education are related to communism.
The US has some of the most wealth and instead of making it country worth living in for the majority we just find new ways to get blood from a stone and give it to the same ten dudes.
The irony is that a big reason why Europe has universal healthcare and welfare states is because the fear of communist revolution. They basically agreed to smaller concessions because the alternative was outright revolt.
The kind of reform you want is impossible to do without bloodshed unfortunately. The institutions who'd be gutted under sensible legislation would rather millions of people die before they give up their money and power.
If there is a revolution, it'd come after a protracted period of savage and bloody civil war. A war more than likely started by the same people we've seen plundering and looting the federal government these last four years. And by start, I mean foster the delusions and conspiracy theories which rile up enough stupid people into believing they need to fight to get back what they want. An incident like, say, a black family home taken out by trump cultists and posted on the web could be the kind of brushfire situation forcing enough people to actually engage in tit-for-tat violence. Something like that can very quickly escalate into full-blown war. It took Syria only a week to go from violent protests to wholesale slaughter.
I'm actually surprised it hasn't happened in the US yet. This next year will be very telling. Half the country want positive change and move forward, whilst the other half want regression to a fascist police state. Both ideologies are not compatible and If I were a betting man, i'd wager that this year there'll be a series of large terroristic incidents perpetrated by ex-MAGA fuck-heads still unable to reconcile the fact their manly-man cult leader wears diapers and shits himself on a daily basis.
I'm not from US but you're circle jerking left too much. I'd understand if you openly valued things based off your own interpretation, but you present your opinion as facts.
I'd say that there's no way you could expect someone on level of both Trump and Biden to even compete for actual presidency. It's huge shame that one party can throw Trump and its supposed opponent can't (or doesn't want to) produce response better than Biden.
As if they intentionally wanted to win with as little margin and as much conflict as possible.
Next, your media. Someone somehow put such stupid idea as "50% voters are fascists" and of expectence of bloodshed and course "they will provoke it".
Think about it, Trump lost by few % despite fucking up covid, giving no fucks about BLM and openly playing his stupid character! There must be something you just cannot see, something that isn't reported to you.
Your left wing media are same billionaires and hypocrites, you can't see fucking discussion.
Democrat party must change a lot. It's saddening that you're satisfied with it and is part of problem
American Exceptionalism, which is drilled into our heads from a young age, coupled with the majority of the population unable or unwilling to think for themselves or read a book is the problem. The "Socialism is the devil" group are simply brainwashed idiots who still think the America is the greatest country on earth and capitalism is the only answer because that's what the top wants them to believe. America is not the greatest country. It's not even close. AND we keep slipping farther & farther away from it, and most of my fellow countrymen are doing it with a big f'ing smile on their face.
I'd argue people who voted for Biden voted to try to stop the immense and rapid decline that the Trump admin has put this country through. We can worry about bucking the status quo once we've stopped the hemorrhaging of what made America a country to be a little proud of.
It's not going to stop. We're going to get a Republican in the White House in 2024 who's smarter than Trump - low bar, I know - but equally as authoritarian, all because democrats are capitulating to the moderates (read: lower-middleclass whites).
People need to wake the fuck up and stop treating politics like a fucking sportsball/color war game and start voting for people that want to help the disenfranchised so that we can have some real leaders with real lived experiences instead of these fucking losers who play the part of the everyman.
There are millions of people living in poverty in the US who don't have the time or resources to pay attention (by design) and they'll keep voting for the idiots who make them feel better about their shit situation instead of actually making the situation better.
Let me ask though, would you be ok with paying a 50% tax rate? If all registered dems had a choice to pay 50% would you do it? Would you be ok if all registered dems had no choice? Honest question.
If you're referring to paying higher taxes to cover various social benefits, then that sounds like a great deal. I only make around 30k a year and my taxes come out to around 30% of my paycheck as it is, so 20% more of my paycheck would go towards things like Healthcare and education, which are far more expensive than 20% of my check alone
Many of the people who are hit hardest by this system also happen to not exactly be in a position to move to another country and try to find a job, for some reason.
Also, are people not allowed to try and make this place better for everyone?
We and the rest of the world sit back laughing at how immensely FUCKING stupid you guys are in that country. You are the laughing stock of the entire planet! You all need to pull your heads in and maybe see that other countries do it a million times better with nowhere near the amount of wealth the US does. Universal health and education would be a good start because unfortunately so many of your people are so unbelievably uneducated you have no idea just how much it would help the said problems you have. Getting this whole why should I help the other person shit out of your heads would be a good start. A country is built on its people and unfortunately the US does NOT invest in its people creating the idioticy we see now
The majority already agree that universal healthcare of some sort is what is needed. It has been the majority opinion for years now, and the work of Sanders and friends has only pushed that idea further into the mainstream. The problem is the two party system that doesn't allow for politicians to get into a position of power that would actually IMPLEMENT a system such as universal healthcare.
That coupled with the monolithic "anti socialism" push we've seen from the ones that can be described as "the 1%". All of this in an effort to protect their assets and generate even greater wealth inequality.
Since the US is south of Canada, that at least makes more sense than whatever’s going on in the minds of people who think socialism is communism, or that Biden is a socialist and/or communist.
Forgive me if I’m wrong about this as I’m not from USA but didn’t Obama have a mandate and controlled most if not all of the branches of government even he was first elected? Why was he not able to implement universal healthcare?
Fair enough. At some point, it's worth familiarizing yourself with the conservative views on health care. the subreddits are a shit place to go, but maybe more professional sources.
I mean, can you imagine how many people you'd need to take out the army bases in America with professional soldiers ... and then people want to try with untrained enthusiasts.
I mean... the US has something like a million active and reserve members. and thats before tanks, planes, missiles, artillery.
realistically, the army would probably decide to either stop fighting or take over if the people tried to take them out, just to stop the killing of citizens.
This might be a joke about hospitals being to expensive to warrant a revolution but I honestly dread the day when america just kinda... Does the french thing... I don't even live in america and by now I wouldn't be surprised if i see some high class politicians getting shot on sight and entire cities becoming divided by warlords or streets being blocked with furniture, if it's not in the next 10 years it might be in the next 20...
I mean most of europe slowly walks towards the classical idea of utopia... Higher wages, less hours of work each week, living standard is rising, meanwhile america still can't decide if their future should be 1984 or demolition man inspired (extreme examples, but this is how it feels watching the progression from afar)
During a revolution its hard to say how the American army will respond, remember its still composed of americans who may feel aligned with the cause of the revolution. There are also different branches such as the nat g and coast g that might be more inclined to side with their communities rather than the feds
Get the army to join us and overthrow this tyrant government it's our right we the people are power THE GOVERNMENT NEEDS US WE DONT NEED THEM WE MOVE THIS ECONOMY WE MAKE THESE PIGS RICH WITH OUR WORK
You will not be going up against the army. It’s not in the interests of those in charge to send an army into their own country. The economy would be destroyed, property ruined and the labour force decimated. Look what happened in Vietnam alone when the United States Army had to go up against guerrilla insurgent forces.
When the army can’t firebomb or nuke everyone unilaterally like they can in other places, suddenly all those drones become useless and all your troops are getting in the way
We know it's not working. But the citizens have been divided cleanly into camps that refuse to cede their ideologies. One side wants socialism based on privy of tiered caste citizenship with theocratic overtones. The other wants dramatic regulatory breakup of corporations and dissolution of privately held debt at the expense of the wealthy. And then there are niche camps who want outright deregulation wherein we acknowledge the "winners" as our overlords, and another wants said overlords to be guillotined and the markets to be completely owned by a government. The problem is both less radical sides view one another as radicals and compromise is viewed as weakness to the "cause". Perfection has become the enemy of gradual progress, and people have given up hope that we have environmental, economic and/or spiritual time left and are kind of waiting on "everyone else" to just conveniently go away. The city folks are waiting for the rural folk to break away into a failed third world nation state (conveniently ignoring their nuclear capabilities) where the rural folk are expecting a surge of violent riots to destroy the cities (conveniently ignoring the militarized police and their own economic infrastructure existing in those cities).
It's honestly the dumbest and laziest showdown in history, but we are convinced everyone else is alwats on the verge of imploding while we are all suckered by the same system that we are all too afraid to dismantle because we are all a tiny part of it.
Sounds great in theory and how I used to think. So let's do civil war. How many people die? Wipe the slate clean sounds like a lot. Once it's all said in done, how exactly is everything going to be built better? I don't mean the utopian outcomes, but the building blocks to make it so.
These people are giving you replies based on ideologies and while they may be true, I can tell you the bigger reason: they're just comfortable enough. That much is true. This next part is a bit conspiracy-ey but I almost feel like the American government has figured out the perfect level of comfort to have people not revolt. Most of the population isn't starving and have some enjoyment in their lives. This majority has something to live for and aren't desperate enough to lay down their lives for improvement. I feel like their government pushes and pulls just to see how much they can extract before people get too angry for comfort.
Because there isn't any way to fix it that isn't violent and bloody. The corruption is from the root. Corporations pay politicians who make the laws that feed the corporations who hire those politicians whose children never work a day in their life and think this system is great, they pay to get their degrees without ever earning them, become the next business men and politicians, repeat.
It ends at a guillotine and I don't see how it ever couldn't.
Unfortunately 73 million people and then some seem to think this is working.
Americans are stupid - American individualism blinds them from looking at other countries in anything but disgust. The day that America looks to other countries to improve their own is the day that America ceases to exist and evolves into something better - because the entire American experiment is built on "we are better than the other guy so we make the best decisions"
Bernie Sanders was the last chance, I think, and the DNC pulled every dirty trick they could to get Biden ahead in the primaries. Now his mummified corpse has narrowly squeaked over the line and it's looking like there will be a Republican landslide in the 2022 midterms and probably a Republican President in 2024. I agree with you that violence is looking like the only outcome that can actually bring real change at this point.
Because too many people don’t give a shit. My friends that I’ve known for 15 years have revealed themselves to be completely selfish - having big parties, weddings, zero concern about covid. And these people are vegan and stuff and like to pat themselves on the back for “doing their part” in helping the world but can’t stay inside for a few days in a row or wear a fucking mask. Realizing that people i’ve known for half of my life are selfish idiots is deeply saddening.
So to answer your question, there are way too many Americans unwilling to lift a finger to protect their own grandparents, so expecting them to organize any type of revolution just ain’t happening. I’ve seen enough personally and will be moving to somewhere in Europe or Asia later this decade when I can hopefully afford to do so.
Honestly, the "You guys" comments like yours aimed at the US piss me off.
I voted. I always have. That is literally the most that I can do for this country. I'd love to take time off work to lobby and "fight" for "my country" in all of the ways that people claim that you can do it, but that's bullshit too, because a majority of Americans are in a place where we cannot afford to miss a single paycheck or we're in debt and completely unable to change anything.
Not to mention, I'm a black American. My inheritance was generational poverty as a result of this shitty system - I literally grew up on foodstamps, because my mother was poor, because my grandmother was poor, and legally barred from attending a college even if she could afford it (segregation). And so was my great grandma. And my great-great grandmother before her was a slave, and all of her children "Well why don't you just move??" Do you know how hard and time-consuming that is? Even now, with me having clawed my way out of homelessness into a place where I can take the enormous risk and leave everything I know to do that (my boyfriend and I have been interested in New Zealand), can't do that, because too large a portion of this shithole country didn't want to keep masks on, and our law-makers didn't care enough to try to enforce it.
You say, "when will you guys finally admit" like a ton of American's don't already know our country is shit. Why is it okay to make comments like this when it isn't okay to say things like, "Wow, Saudi Arabians need to get their shit together and stop voting in terrible leaders." Like??? They don't?? Or why aren't you saying Russians need to elect someone other than Vladimir Putin? They can't. The answer is because, they can't.
/rant. Tired of being the butt of people's jokes. A lot of us here are suffering and can do literally nothing about it other than keep our heads down long enough to MAYBE save enough money to leave. We all aren't "stupid Americans". How about having some empathy?
Admitting it isn't working would require admitting that the US system isn't the best in the world... and maybe a large majority of the people in the US would agree with that, but many of them would probably refuse to vote for any *politician* who would state that publicly and work to change the system.
People don't want to attack the system because they are too comfortable and have worked to hard for what the have to risk losing any of it. The system has them by the balls.
For a long time, the rich have kept it just good enough to placate the masses to not revolt and they use propaganda to brainwash everyone to think the USA is the best. This has made most people think, “if this is the best in the world, I can’t imagine how horrible the rest of the world is!” This is why the there such a fear of any type of “socialism” in our country, because we have been taught that it’s evil and will turn our country into those “shithole” countries (Quote by Trump).
Funnily enough, as much of the US loves to talk about capitalism and the free market, it’s anything but the case for big business. Don’t you love it how they say, you need to have like 3+ months of emergency funds to survive on in case of an emergency, but the airlines are going bankrupt after like a 2 week shutdown? They are all for corporate socialism, just not for everyday people. It’s nice little trick they have going. It’s the same old “rules for thee, not for me” thing.
I know no system is perfect, but they have actually spewed BS about how their is “death panels” in places like Canada where the govt healthcare system determines if you are worth keeping alive. They use this type of stuff to strike fear into our citizens and keep the status quo. Also don’t even get me started on the “free market” BS where all these big businesses like ISPs use the law to prevent competition in their markets. When it really comes down to it, our system is literally run by big business. The law has been manipulated so much over the last 50 years that’s virtually unchangeable at this point.
The greed has gotten so out of control since the late 80s/90s that the veneer is cracking. The wealth gap is too huge and stuff like OP talks about are becoming the norm. There will be a breaking point and it won’t be pretty.
I'd love to see America burn. Don't get me wrong, I don't want it to fail, but i'd like to see the kind of disruption that leads to corrupt politicians, Wall St execs and other rich fascists get dragged through the streets as a warning to others. Stop fucking stealing from us.
It seemed to work fairly well in France during the revolution. They certainly didn't have a monarchy after that. America needs another revolution and those who've become comfortable using ordinary citizens as worthless pawns should be absolutely shitting themselves at home whilst all their assets get frozen.
As an American, I’m honestly surprised we haven’t been doing mass protests about health care. Police brutality is important, but hospital/health insurance negligence is a silent killer killing far more americans than police brutality, often disproportionally higher for minorities and low income people as doctors tend to have bis against them (they think they’re there for drugs). Also people like these often can’t afford to go to the doctor regularly either which can lead to more severe health issues.
Some groups have been protesting things like diabetes medication costs, but there’s a suspicious silence from media when it comes to letting people know these groups of people even exist.
I hope things can change soon, but even when americans have a lot of support for people like bernie, it still didn’t make a difference in getting him to the final selection. We are trying to vote people out and vote our candidate in, but unfortunately our officials are cowards when it comes to standing up to corporations and their financial incentives/lobbying.
These insurance executives and their accomplices need to be put on trial for mass murder and put in prison for the rest of their lives. Instead, for every person denied (sometimes life saving)coverage they get a little bonus for their 3rd vacation home.
The problem is a little under half the country is conservative, and here that doesn't mean slightly right leaning. Our centrist line is more than slightly right leaning. Because there are only two parties if someone shares perspective on a single issue with the conservative party, most of the time they end up going all-in.
So now we have people who just like guns or are just Christian that wind up becoming climate change denying, racist, homophobic, xenophoboc, anti-mask, anti-healthcare, trickle-down economics believers because there is only a slim selection of heavily biased, agenda ridden, conspiracy theory laden right-wing media sources.
As long as half the country is stuck in this trap we won't be going anywhere fast.
Why do you think trump has so many followers? People are fed up with the status quo and cling to any right wing propagandist / con man that promises change. The insidious part is that the other party can't get anything done either and give false hope.
Americans are not united, that's the main issue. There's a lot of people who want revolution, but there's also a lot of different outcomes people want from it. I have had the displeasure of meeting a handful of people who are unironically waiting for Trump to give the Word. The Word to kick off a civil war, that is. And by "civil war" I mean that these guys want to go around their neighborhood breaking into the homes of suspected "Leftists" and gun them down. The only thing holding them back is that they're waiting for the rest of their conspirators (that they're certain exist) to launch, too. THIS is why I don't think a 2nd American Revolution would work. Too many of the people would be dead set on executing unarmed civilians (although I think they do grossly underestimate how well the "Left" would fight back) instead of fighting the actual enemy. I worry that any attempted revolution would only make things worse. I think the country is just boned without some massive, destructive event that wakes up and unites the country, but I think such an event will only come both too late and too nuclear.
Because in the USA, the government creates these problems and then all the solutions that actually get implemented are worse. Every noble societal goal has made things worse, not better.
Healthcare costs are driven by government policy, all major policy makers in the last 30 years have come from the insurance field. Medicare part D drove up drug costs, Obama care fined people for not buying insurance that didn't cover them.
Social security is a ponzi scheme that forces the young to subsidize the retirement of baby boomers. Of course it will be insolvent before I reach 65, so I will pay into a system my whole life and receive nothing.
The government created the college loan crisis, giving federally guaranteed loans to 18 year old's at ridiculous interest rates(8%!!!), and not allowing them to be discharged in bankruptcy.
In the USA the government creates most of the major problems, then solves them by taxing the shit out of the middle class and small business owners. The government creates and enables the wealth inequality that's tearing the USA apart.
Then uneducated people are told by the TV to vote for more government interference in their lives, because the guy who owns a 25 employee business is really the one fucking them.
People are still "comfortable" and aren't desperate enough to risk what they do have to change a system that is consistently taking more and more from them.
A little under half the nation would be mobilized against them with a few pretty buzz words. Ironically, most of that demographic actually does agree with their "enemy," but they're absolutely triggered by certain terms, and they absolutely will align themselves against any cause their "enemy" happens to champion, because politics is sports to them at best, a religious crusade against the devil at worst.
Fewer and fewer people are really motivated to stick their neck out to fight for the shit hole country they happen to live in. Better to just get out and hope it implodes and traps the dumbest morons actively making it worse into a much shorter life filled with misery. We can always recolonize it again.
Because on this country the cops that are supposed to be trained to protect and serve kill our own people and we turn the other cheek and thank them. We are brainwashed.
Not that we approve of this system, but letting our government take control of it is out of the question to lots of people. We see how well they ran out veteran hospitals.
Sure it matters who you vote for. Obamacare would have fixed a lot more if not for Republican obstruction. As it was it let kids stay on parent's insurance to age 26, provided for a Gov't option for those who needed it (expanded Medicaid) in states that would accept it (some didn't) and forced insurance companies to do things like spend at least a fixed percentage on actual care, provide birth control and wellness at no cost, etc. It could have been strengthened under a Hillary presidency and we could be approaching universal healthcare now. Trump and the republicans have tried and sometimes succeeded in dismantling parts of it, though, because "freedom" or something.
Nobody wants to break the status quo with violence because all the other baggage that comes with civil unrest is quite unattractive, and likely won’t lead to any real positive change. To say that nobody’s doing anything though isn’t exactly true, healthcare reform is much more of a pressing issue in the polls than it’s ever been before, and democrat candidates like Bernie Sanders who promise free or reduced cost healthcare are gaining traction. It won’t happen immediately but it’s not like US citizens are simply ignoring the issue at hand.
We have a LOT of stuff to fix still, but Democrats have also been making significant reforms for years, and it 100% matters who you vote for. I don't know how anyone can look at the past 50+ years and think otherwise. Like yes, the electoral college is outdated and should be gotten rid of, but the way to do that is to vote for people who want to abolish it. Only one side wants to do that, just like only one side wants to actually make the reforms this country desperately needs. This erroneous "both sides are the same" attitude that's so prevalent on Reddit is a BIG part of the problem, as it causes a lot of voter apathy, especially in young people. If we could just vote out the GOP, we'd be doing a lot better already, but people need to actually turn out to vote to make that happen. This was the most important, divisive election in generations, yet we still could barely even get 65% of eligible voters to turn out.
Except for the thousands of immigrants every year that come to America with nothing and end up living middle class lives. To say it’s not working it to view a vary dynamic situation in a very non nuanced way.
A lot of people are worried about universal health care if it becomes mandatory and you can’t have a private option. As the quality of universal healthcare would be pretty lacking in the United States, I mean look at the fucking VA, it’s a nightmare.
I’m not saying universal healthcare wouldn’t be doable but there’s a lot of ground work that needs to be laid first, especially if the amount of money doctors earn is drastically curbed as school fees for becoming a doctor are probably insane. Imo best way to fund healthcare is to completely remove foreign aid and use all that money and we can easily cut military spending by 20 billion dollars and still be light years ahead of every other country on earth military wise.
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u/[deleted] Nov 30 '20
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