zambiland wrote:As an outsider I find many aspects of American politics culture quite mystifying, but the main one is why so many working/middle class Americans vote against their own economic interests. You guys seem to have this morbid fear of taxation and and any type of state based assistance to your population is branded as "socialism", which was apparently the spawn of the devil. I would argue that in many cases taxes are OK and worth paying as long as the appropriate services are being provided for your tax dollar.pfarrell615 wrote:ok mabey 95 might have been alittle late for innocence but it was certianly not post 9/11,foriegnly saturated, pre bankrupt,crackberry,shrunken middle class, rude,egocentric,consumer freak,american idol rap gulf full of oil, SHIT WE HAVE TODAY1995 was right in the middle of everything you say. It started in the 80s with Ronald Reagan and his Grover Norquist inspired movement to shift the wealth to the wealthy and "shrink government to the size where it could be drowned in the bathtub." The conservatives have been trying to repeal the New Deal ever since it happened and Ronnie Raygun was their man. HW Bush helped and Clinton made it even worse with NAFTA and other free market lies. For those of us that were aware of what was going on in the 80s and 90s, we could tell that we'd end up where we are now. If you only read one book this year, it should be The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein. Then learn about how life really did change after the Wagner Act in 1935 and how that created the middle class. Then, study how the wealthy did their best to destroy labor, which destroyed the American Dream. This debt ceiling agreement, signed today, is the real fulcrum of before and after. We are now on the direct path to becoming a third world country, where an oligarchy of the very wealthy live on the backs of the rest of the country. All the things you mention are but symptoms of the real economic warfare that started with Ronnie. The GD were a life outside of that reality, a welcome relief, however, they were not immune from darkness that existed throughout their whole existence. Innocence is an ideal, not a reality, just like free market capitalism, communism and the perfect cappucino. Lovely, and fleeting.
Australia and most northern European states have systems in place that offer a safety net to thier citizens in case of unemployment and disability and most have state subsidised health schemes which offer at least a minimum level of medical treatment and access to subsidised medicines. These are not bad things, and in Australia at least the majority of the population is happy to contribute to their maintainance through taxes. Yes it costs money, and yes some people abuse the welfare system, but what you get in return is a stable and relatively peaceful society where people are generally not forced to turn to crime in order to survive.