Summations Only

Sorry, it wasn't in the post I was responding to, so I didn't see it. Hah - nor can anyone else. That's not US-specific. In the most up-to-date 'would you generally trust x to tell the truth' MORI poll I found for the UK, 17% trust journalists, 18% politicians generally, 19% government ministers specifically etc. etc. According to Eurobarometer's polls, only 29% of Europeans tend to trust their governments.That's not really important, though, since this isn't what's being measured in the data you posted. It was based on a poll asking people how much they generally trusted other people, rather than institutional actors. Healthcare provision, education, air quality, standards of accommodation......

I cannot imagine much worse than a true democracy.

Those too are certainly quality of life issues and again, the US seems to suck on most of those and we are rapidly trying to destroy the few areas where we have made progress like air and water quality.

well its the only fair system that comes to mind.In representative democracies where people get elected to rule others, only the ones with money have a real chance of getting elected, and once you get elected you will always look out for nr 1 or yourself first, it do sent matter if your freeking Ghandi, when a shit load of money is sitting on the one side and the right tihing to do on the other you will pick the shit load of money 99'9% of the time, and if you choose the right thing to do others in power will do their best to get rid of you and place someone in charge that picks the money option.

Sorry but a pure democracy is simply a tyranny of the majority.

Im going to make a new thread regarding criminal correctional systems.There's too much to reply to here, and it wouldn't have much to do with OWS.

as it should be, now we have a tyranny of the minority of the 1% everybody is talking about.What would your solution be?

That is a subject for some other thread.

So in related economic news, the CEO of Quantas grounded all their planes. You can read about it in the Bloomberg article where the CEO is quoted as saying that only a ban on strikes would assure that he will resume flights.The most interesting comment in the article IMHO is this one:

quote:

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Joyce needs to break the unions like Margaret Thatcher did with the coal miners, said Odia Ukoko, a 44-year-old Melbourne-based businessman who was in Perth to seek meetings with delegates at the inter-governmental summit. If he breaks the union, I won’t buy Qantas tickets but I’ll buy Qantas shares.

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If the public does not buy Quantas tickets, what will be the value of Quantas shares?

I think that it is at the root of this thread and the demonstrations.The institutionalized economic disparity in the world is maintained by the disconnect between the opinions of the ‘have nots’ and the actions of the government. This disconnect is intrinsic to representational democracy.What do you think the results would be if the issues of tax rates, health care, campaign finance reform, prohibition etc, etc, were decided by referendum?

Utter chaos, increased discrimination, total destruction of all infrastructure and in a very short time a major violent revolution.

Why?

Ignorance, a lack of training in the area of critical thinking, inability to do long term planning, a total lack of historical knowledge.A pure democracy would likely be the worst possible form of government.

Are these qualities that you identify in our current crop of representatives?I am often amazed at how smart all of the stupid people are when I actually speak to them.

Those are what I see in the electorate.