To get trust you need transparency. And by transparency I don't access to information but to information in the form of knowledge. We to to upgrade government to the digital age to do so.
Trust in Government Is Collapsing Around the World
81–90 of 227 posts
Re: Trust in Government Is Collapsing Around the World
#82The book It's Even Worse Than It Looks is a great resource for understanding this phenomenon in the United States. The authors are longtime congressional staffers who are horrified at the institution's decline.
They argue that the US Congress really isn't working well, degrading the performance of the entire US government, and the primary cause of this dysfunction is a deliberate campaign by the Republican party, starting with Newt Gingrich in the mid 1990s.
I remember learning about the Contract With America is school, but I had no idea it was so insidious. The GOP intentionally broke congress to get people angry about crappy government, under the theory that they, as the party of small government, they would make relative gains.
This has now baked for 20 years, and has been pretty effective. This is why you see Republicans stonewalling things they should logically support, like nominees they explicitly praise as qualified, Obamacare's extensive market mechanics, etc. It's also why Congress can't pass laws even when thr majority of the population supports them, and real crises like the Debt Ceiling debacle.
Institutions are critically important. We have to fix this before we can fix anything else.
Re: Trust in Government Is Collapsing Around the World
#83If with 'around the world' they intend to mean 'The USA and the UK' then I'm all in agreement. But the rest of the world is not that much different from 12 months ago. The article sugggests strongly that these other countries had a completely different view of their governments in the recent past but I see very little evidence of that. But in the UK (see: brexit) and in the USA (see: Trump) there definitely is a popu…
Stuff going on with the Australian federal election last weekend (2016-07-02) is pretty interesting, too. [0] [1] We’re still not sure who is going to be running the country yet.
Almost a quarter of the votes went to minor parties and independents, which is the highest on record I believe. Derryn Hinch (aka “the human headline”) is now a senator, along with Pauline Hanson, who I imagine campaigned on building a wall along the Australian/Mexican border.
Most people are interpreting it as an indication that we’re sick of all the narcissistic bullshit from the two major parties. Of course they don’t see it that way.
[0] For the uninitiated, Australia has compulsory voting, and a two-party preferred system, so the lion share of voters usually vote for either Labor or the Coalition (Liberal), with a smattering to minor parties and independents.
[1] http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-07-03/election-results-histo...
Re: Trust in Government Is Collapsing Around the World
#84I understand the point that the author is trying to make, but "around the world" seems to be an overstatement. More like around the America and Europe.
In countries like Russia or China, trust of government is the very basis of governance. The country would collapse rather fast if a sizeable portion of people stop trusting the government.
Re: Trust in Government Is Collapsing Around the World
#85Most people don't know what's going on in government and judge things by how life is around them. Unfortunately that's been bad in many places due mostly to deflation of a type not much seem since the 1930s IMHO. This then gets blamed on the politicians, immigrants and the like as most people couldn't even tell you what "insufficient aggregate demand" means.
Re: Trust in Government Is Collapsing Around the World
#86In my opinion this is the inevitable political crisis that unrestrained neoliberalism has lead us to. [ https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/31/witnes... ] I'd say this is the end of the ideology but I'm too much of a realist and I expect the powers that be to now double down on it and then try and profit from it all going up in flames. (But please don't assume I am some kind of socialist/anti-capitalis…
It isn't just sale of public institutions. In many cases, it is attempts to maintain the status quo when circumstances have clearly changed. Public sector pensions are a perfect example of this. I think most software engineers don't realize how good public servants have it. In a time of very little safe asset growth, defined benefit pension plans are simply unsustainable without massive increases in contributions. Ye…
It'll be interasting what's going to happen with state pensions when the burden is just too high. In the next 15 years one of these IL, NJ or HI will be at a breaking point. My bet is on IL since the approx date of falling off the cliff is 2028.
Re: Trust in Government Is Collapsing Around the World
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
Another mistake regarding extraEU immigration is that they put all the responsibility on the Schengen border countries instead of creating a common solution for that.
> a common solution I'm sorry for my naivety but what does that mean? I've heard this so many times. Do they want German troops on their borders? Do they want to sit back and relax while Germany feeds, clothes, and shelters their troops and law enforcement? Now, a common solution for the refugee crisis is not possible because the problem is not the refugee crisis. The problem is that the EU is TOO WEAK. Perhaps a nai…
At the very least, have a vetting + tracking implemention at the outer borders. As far as I can tell they had and did nothing. They had no plan, no structures in place, no way to track migrants entering Europe, nothing. That is just asking for chaos, trouble, and pissed off groups of local people.
Basically, all I see is a blanket "let's open the borders" call, that allowed people to simply cross a border. It renders the concept of borders, border-control, visas, regulations, passports all of that as null and void. For years, we've all followed the rule of law, visas and passports for travel, and now all of a sudden none of that matters because...?
Re: Trust in Government Is Collapsing Around the World
#88If with 'around the world' they intend to mean 'The USA and the UK' then I'm all in agreement. But the rest of the world is not that much different from 12 months ago. The article sugggests strongly that these other countries had a completely different view of their governments in the recent past but I see very little evidence of that. But in the UK (see: brexit) and in the USA (see: Trump) there definitely is a popu…
Italy has a left-wing anti-establishment party: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Star_Movement
Actually right wingers say that the 5 stars are left wing and left wingers say they are right wing. Five Star is made of disgrunted citizens and those citizens used to vote left and right so you can see anything in it. Maybe it's time to go past concepts like left and right.
Poll among the electors of the 5 Star one year ago http://www.polisblog.it/post/354975/sondaggi-politici-chi-so...
33% said to be left winger
21% rigth winger
11% center
35% none of the above
Re: Trust in Government Is Collapsing Around the World
#89Seeing how the general populous deemed George Bush a "trustworthy" president I'm really starting to worry about the judgement of the common man.
Re: Trust in Government Is Collapsing Around the World
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
> lefties Ah, one of those comments. Most of the EU countries where immigration is currently an issue have had 'right wing' parties leading them for a very long time. Immigration is just the easiest populist button to press to get a large number of people to vote against their own interests. One of the problems underlying all this is not immigration per-se, but the rapid and unbounded expansion of the EU to include c…
a huge influx of refugees was a risk they took knowingly, and that I feel it is only responsible to deal with. Yes and since you mention responsibilities for destabilization, I would find it appropriate if the US felt some of it too. How many Syrian refugees have they accepted so far? 10k? It's pathetic, given that Europe is absorbing 100x or 200x the amount. I'd suggest that the Nobel-peace-prize-winning US presiden…
Maybe Europe should close the floodgates themselves, rather than bitch about we who have been struck by the lightning bolt of sense.