Our Socioeconomic Position is at Risk

Phat writes:Does anyone else feel as if the middle class in the united States is essentially between a rock and a hard place?

Straggler writes:What does this mean?

Straggler writes:But we don't all have equal power to create the world we want do we?

Taq writes:So how did you vote on the latest budget proposals?

Taq writes:Which is not the same as voting on the bills themselves. When you vote for representation you are only hoping that they vote in your best interest. There is no guarantee. Also, in the US system those who are willing to donate large sums of money towards a campaign have more of a voice in the system after elections than those who do not.

Perdition writes:No, it's not. WHen the government was founded, running for public office was seen as a sacrifice, that people had to be convinced to run, and that these people would received public money to do so.Of course, it very quickly became a goal rather than a sacrifice, people's net worth rose above the level that public funding could compete with to the point that almost no one takes the public funding any more.And then, when we have some people in government fighting to keep money out of the having undue influence, the supreme court goes and overturns years of precedence and declares that corporaitons are people, and that is used many years later, to overturn even more years of precedence in allowing corporations to spend virtually unlimited amounts of money in political contests.I'd say that the form of government "the people" put in place has been turned on its head by the people with money.

Taq writes:To be more specific, it is the system we inherited. I never voted on that. I would happily vote for a federal system where money is doled out equally to candidates and no outside money is allowed. I will probably never be allowed to vote on such a bill, and I really doubt that any elected official would ever promote or vote on such a bill.

Perdition writes:No, it's a world we inheritied, that was created by fallible people over hundreds (in America's case) or thousands of years, each glomming more sludge ontop of an already sludge-filled sundae.{AbE} WHen your choices come down to "the better of two evils" can you really say the world is as we want it?

Perdition writes:Actually, the percentage of people who vote is on a generally downward spiral, but that's not an argument on either side.The fact remains, people vote based on lies and distortions. The people who DO vote, vote without having, or being able to get, a clear picture of who they're voting for. They're far from being able to make informed decisions, and once people are elected, the bills they vote on are generally pages and pages long, and from those pages, they pull out one or two lines and point to those as their reasons for voting for or against something, and the people who then get to decide if they get to keep their job are again left without a full picture of their record.

Perdition writes:You can say this, and I suppose at a very naive level it's true. But you can't deny that those with money and influence have had more influence in the creating that world than the average person.

Perdition writes:I live in Wisconsin. I'm not sure how aware of US news you are, but we're currently in the middle of a huge protest in Wisconsin relating to public employees and their ability to have a union. People are willing to fight to keep something they've had, getting them to fight against something that's been in place is tougher to do. Which is why we have so few states with legalized gay marriage, and many more which have outright banned it. It's also why allowing gays to openly serve in the military was such a hard battle.

NoNukes writes:Mission accomplished.