Hobbes' Choice wrote:
I'm tempted to agree with the argument about scale, but I think that might be masking a deeper difference. Given that we all live in a global economy with global media, how is it that Iceland managed to pursue the bankers whilst the USA did not? Is Iceland not part of the same world? Is the question more about what social mechanism allowed the US and Uk bankers to get away with the destruction of the economy and continue to be rewarded for failure. Surely 'scale' does not answer this question.
It isn't scale alone but how far removed from accountability public officials are. Iceland has about 340,000 people, vs 340 million people in the US. The city of Seattle alone has 2x as many people as Iceland, so scale is not a marginal difference; we're talking about orders of magnitude.
It seems to me that the standard anti-government, anti-social benefits, anti-socialism, pro-tea party rhetoric seems to spew forth from the mouths of the very people that such an ideology oppresses.
Don't mistake me for someone who is pro-tea party. Those people are nuts.
It's seems some kind of self delusion. From this side of the pond it is pretty scary, but what is happening over here too seems bizarre to say the least. Part of this seems to thrive on the cult of the individual; self-reliance. This works well for the rich who'd rather continue to pay no tax, and have no social responsibility, but whilst this is damaging even for their prospects in the long run, why would they care about schooling blacks or about ending the war on drugs which provides for them 2-3 million workers, making things for less wages than a Chinaman gets?
This is the bedrock of the US economy at the moment, making most of basic military equipment, such as helmets and belt/holders etc. and 100% of domestic house paint. A slave economy is bad for the population as a whole.
Obviously this is a massive topic.
There is a massive irony that the country that shouts most about freedom and democracy has more incarcerated than any country on earth, and a democracy less representative than Iran's.
No doubt about the irony, there. Stanford did a meta study recently and found that the US has an oligarchy because the legislature does not represent the voters but the lobbyists.
As for the war on drugs it's not just slave labor from prisons, but the billions of dollars every year spent to keep them incarcerated in for profit prisons, the defense industry that militarizes the police force, and the politicians whose election coffers and personal pockets are stuffed full of cash from the lobbying efforts of the aformentioned.
The whole system is by, of, and for not the people but the few and well connected.
I'm newbie. I live in new york and happy to become a part of philosophical community.
Aha! There's the source of the confusion!
I'm She