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MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more similar to developing nations

theintellectualist.co

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Re: MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more similar to developing nations

#91

Post by alistairSH »

unityByFreedom wrote: post #70
phkahler wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think most of the division in US politics comes from the way representatives are influenced. By co-locating them all in Washington we enable destructive lobbying while keeping them away from the people they are supposed to represent. The party system is also destructive - I advocate against any legal recognition of political parties and against campaign ads funded by anyone outside the state a person is running in.…

> By co-locating them all in Washington we enable destructive lobbying while keeping them away from the people they are supposed to represent Representatives do spend time in their own states. They also need a central place to meet. No country or system does this differently. > The party system is also destructive - I advocate against any legal recognition of political parties and against campaign ads funded by anyon…

In addition to rolling back Citizens United would be to re-introduce pork-barrel spending. With changes to the legislative process in the 90s, Congressional leaders lost a strong carrot to keep the rank-and-file members playing along. In the current system, with no carrot, legislators are more inclined to follow the wishes of their constituents. And with extreme gerrymandering, those constituents can be very extreme.

Re: MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more similar to developing nations

#92

Post by Pulcinella »

Kaizyn wrote: post #84
kristofferR wrote: post #2

Am I wrong in attributing/connecting most of Americas problems with its flawed constitution/democratic system? The first version of something is rarely the best version, and while the US constitution contained a lot of fantastic elements and freedoms that every educated American knows about, it also contained a democratic system (first past the post/two party system) that is mathematically bound to breed divisiveness…

First of all, it is a republic and not a democracy. The difference is quite important. Secondly, to attribute the problems to the constitution is mistaken. That founding document is the only thing standing in the way of a complete and total disaster for the country. Nearly all the problems can be traced back to where politicians are ignoring the constitution in part or in full and thereby eroding the public protectio…

First of all, a republic is a type of democracy...

Re: MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more similar to developing nations

#93

Post by s_kilk »

arethuza wrote: post #44
kristofferR wrote: post #2

Am I wrong in attributing/connecting most of Americas problems with its flawed constitution/democratic system? The first version of something is rarely the best version, and while the US constitution contained a lot of fantastic elements and freedoms that every educated American knows about, it also contained a democratic system (first past the post/two party system) that is mathematically bound to breed divisiveness…

The UK seems to having similar problems - so I don't think it is related to the specifics of the constitution/democratic system.

And what's the common denominator?

Neoliberal Capitalism.

Re: MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more similar to developing nations

#94

Post by kristofferR »

joelrunyon wrote: post #90
nunez wrote: post #4

While I don't think the US is, de jure, a third-world country, I completely believe that it is, de facto, for many. I am on my way back from Memphis and onto Detroit, and both of these cities and their home states have plenty of areas that look unbelievably impoverished. Based on what I've seen from my years of traveling the country, it would not surprise me if most of the country had this problem. It's really sad.

As I stated above: 3rd world means non-NATO aligned states (or communist aligned states). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third_World Unless the US turns communist, it can not be a 3rd world country.

Did you even read the link you posted? It states that the definition of what the "third world" is is changing, right in some of the first paragraphs.

Re: MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more similar to developing nations

#95

Post by bcook »

adamnemecek wrote: post #58
kristofferR wrote: post #2

Am I wrong in attributing/connecting most of Americas problems with its flawed constitution/democratic system? The first version of something is rarely the best version, and while the US constitution contained a lot of fantastic elements and freedoms that every educated American knows about, it also contained a democratic system (first past the post/two party system) that is mathematically bound to breed divisiveness…

There's also a cultural aspect. E.g. Note how people in the us don't protest much, much to their detriment.

Aren't there better ways than protesting to affect change?

Re: MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more similar to developing nations

#96

Post by RamenJunkie_ »

324343245 wrote: post #17

Notice how things start to get worse and worse as globalism progresses? Things were great in the 90's, then we signed NAFTA and that's when everything started going to shit. Globalism is what has brought wages down. Globalism combines the economies of the richest countries with the economies of the poorest in an attempt to "help" poor countries. As rich countries and poor countries combine economies, they move toward…

What else became big starting in the 90s? Hmm, maybe technology and the internet, and the ability for quick and easy communication on a global scale?

A massive shift in job types to more technical fields, and less jobs of a hazardous and dangerous nature brought by new technologies from these new technology tools?

Globalization isn't necessarily the enemy here, and frankly, it's inevitable for us to survive as a species. There is going to have to be cooperation across the globe as more 3rd world countries start to rise because the planet and the environment simply can't support 6 billion people living at at a higher lifestyle level.

Re: MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more similar to developing nations

#97

Post by PeterisP »

jhbadger wrote: post #34
kristofferR wrote: post #2

Am I wrong in attributing/connecting most of Americas problems with its flawed constitution/democratic system? The first version of something is rarely the best version, and while the US constitution contained a lot of fantastic elements and freedoms that every educated American knows about, it also contained a democratic system (first past the post/two party system) that is mathematically bound to breed divisiveness…

There's nothing in the Constitution about political parties, two or otherwise. In fact, the initial idea at the time was that the US wasn't going to have political parties and that voters would focus on individuals instead.

Given the "rules of the game" set in US Constitution, a two-party system is a natural outcome, all other situations and fluctuations converge back to that - as shown both by game theory and practical historical evidence. Intent doesn't matter here - if you want different systemic outcomes, you have to change the rules.

Re: MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more similar to developing nations

#98

Post by arethuza »

ricw wrote: post #87
324343245 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Am I wrong in attributing/connecting most of Americas problems with its flawed constitution/democratic system? Almost certainly. The US was doing fine for most of the 20th century. Globalism is what has brought wages down. Globalism combines the economies of the richest countries with the economies of the poorest in an attempt to "help" poor countries. As rich countries and poor countries combine economies, they mo…

Whilst your point is true, you're wrong in thinking it is a zero sum game. It certainly isn't. In stark contrast to the USA, it has largely been a win-win situation in Europe for blue collar workers. What has been devastating for the mid-west is that the exporting of jobs was politically and financially supported. Companies would receive subsidies to "globalise".

Part of the UK have been very badly hit by globalism - which arguably was one of the major factors in the Brexit vote. Similarly, the support for National Front in France was, as far as I understand it, largely in areas where there have been steep downturns in traditional industries.

Edit: I was a Remain voter - but I can completely why so many people were angry and wanted a protest vote. Just that I don't think the EU really caused many of the problems people were complaining about so that coming out of the EU is unlikely to actually resolve this issues.

Re: MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more similar to developing nations

#99

Post by nkohari »

anovikov wrote: post #78
danieltillett wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a bit of a hobby horse of mine, but the reason is the number of elected representatives has not kept pace with the population growth. When the USA was founded there were about 20,000 electors per representatives and now in some seats there are over a million. If you want representation you need to be able to meet and talk to your rep - more importantly they need to be able to acquire your vote without the nee…

How about starting from the other side? Decreasing the number of electors to be more the way it was when USA was founded? So people with no income earning property ('passive income' as it is called here), do not vote? Before 1820s, they didn't.

If you're interested in fixing the problem the article discusses, this is pretty much exactly the wrong approach. You would actually be hard-pressed to find a solution more diametrically opposed to fixing the problem.

Re: MIT economist believes U.S. is shifting to be more similar to developing nations

#100

Post by rbanffy »

adrianN wrote: post #51
kristofferR wrote: post #2

Am I wrong in attributing/connecting most of Americas problems with its flawed constitution/democratic system? The first version of something is rarely the best version, and while the US constitution contained a lot of fantastic elements and freedoms that every educated American knows about, it also contained a democratic system (first past the post/two party system) that is mathematically bound to breed divisiveness…

I agree that first past the post is stupid, but the strong divide between Repulicans and Democrats seems to be fairly recent.[1] They used to vote less along party lines. So maybe the rise of mass media is to blame? http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal....

At some point someone discovered that reporting on a fictional version of reality that confirms the audience's biases was more profitable than reporting on actual facts.
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