Our Socioeconomic Position is at Risk

This is (to put it mildly) a somewhat naive attitude.But your innocence does hold a certain charm I suppose.

So how did you vote on the latest budget proposals?

By voting for the Representatives.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

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.

Of course not. Don't be silly. But it is the system that we decided to put in place. And again, the fact that money buys votes is what the voters decided to allow.It is the world they wanted.Edited by jar, : left out an 'r'

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

The problem is that in America, we have a larger proportion of the global companies' headquarters (or we used to) meaning it's much easier for some CEO to say, "Well, Americans aren't working hard enough, we'd better outsource to some country where they wil work harder."And that's on top of the fact that it's all but impossilbe for our government to make any more work-related oversight laws, since our corporations are now considered people with the ability to throw millions of dollars at anyone willing to vote against these types of measures.

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.

How did that happen?

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Check out No webpage found at provided URL: Apollo's Temple!
Ignorance is temporary; you should be able to overcome it. - nwr

Exactly in the same way that many armies are fighting the previous war. The situation, when it was set up was able to be taken advantage of in ways that were almost inconceivable in the previous generation. Once people got into power by taking advantage of a system, they're able to then influence the laws such that they can keep themselves in power.For instance, redistricting was created as a way to allow districts to change as populations moved. Now it's used as a way to keep the current reigning political party in power. "We the people" have no real say in how redistricting is done other than by choosing whether it's Democrats or Republicans who game the system.When it comes to financial contributions, the person who can buy the most media and slander his/her opponent usually wins. The people who give the most money to that person can ask for some sort of recompense, and they usually get it. Those of us who don't own a company or don't have a few more digits on our net worth don't even register as a blip on most donation registers.Ultimately, it comes down to the victors writing the rules for how they can be revictorious, and they have no reason to try to change the system since the system works for them.

You can say whatever you want. The people still vote.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

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.

Aw. Tough.It still comes down to a world we created.

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Anyone so limited that they can only spell a word one way is severely handicapped!

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.

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?Edited by Perdition, : No reason given.

And the one we inherited.