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In the US popular opinion says that Congress should raise domestic spending, lower taxes, decrease the deficit, and pay for this by lowering foreign aid to 10%

In the US popular opinion says that Congress should raise domestic spending, lower taxes, decrease the deficit, and pay for this by lowering foreign aid to 10% of the budget. Foreign aid is actually 1% of the budget. Politicians should ideally do the right thing or failing that do things that will get them reelected. Roughly 50% of the popular vote supported both the "leave" and stay options and the fraction of the electorate that votes based on "Has my life gotten better or worse since the last election" is much larger than the difference between the two sides so to get reelected MPs should vote as they think will most benefit the country.

throwaway91111 10y ago
Arguably, it's better to elect flawed but representative people. How else are people to learn?
- GeneralMayhem 10y ago
  People will refuse to learn either way. Better to have someone intelligent at the top protecting them from their own ignorance, short-sightedness, and pettiness than to continue to inflict those traits on everyone by having representatives be glorified remote-control pens.
- manicdee 10y ago
  Learn what? That the slip from representative democracy to genocide-crazy fascism is one election cycle?
  - candiodari 10y ago
    Could you explain how leaving the EU is genocidal and/or fascist ? How it is going to change the government in the UK ?
    - andrewflnr 10y ago
      I'm guessing that was a reference to the US election.
      - mcguire 10y ago
        Or possibly the end of the Weimar Republic.
  - vixen99 10y ago
    Does representative democracy equate with EU lawmaking whereby it is the unelected commission that have the sole right to propose legislation'? Yes, that is actually the case, believe it or not.
candiodari 10y ago
So what you're saying is: 1) obviously the UK was in the EU for the past years 2) people voted against this for 2 reasons. One, they're against the EU. Two, they're not happy with how their own lives changed under 1. 3) We should ignore the second argument and go against the will of the people because ... we're smarter and think that argument is wrong ? Because their lives got worse for other reasons, not this policy ? I disagree. When push comes to shove the government is responsible for outcomes. If your policies can't produce good outcomes for everyone, they don't deserve to exist. And frankly, the way the EU is being run, I would vote to leave as well. Not because I'm rightist, quite the opposite. Because I'm an actual leftist: a) the EU is an extreme right government for an electorate that is decidedly NOT extreme-right (tax income, public losses, private profits, too big to fail, DRASTIC action against asset/wealth taxes, ...) We need a leftist government. b) the population is right : globalization is definitely one of the factors that made them worse off. c) the EU's monetary policy is a fantasy. The EU wants to devalue it's currency over time by giving money to the banks and taking it away from governments. This is not what their rhetoric says, but they've been doing it for 15 years now, I find myself unwilling to accept the rhetoric. The EU is built on an economic policy of asset inflation and this is clearly non-negotiable (poor Greeks). I want out. d) So far, by staying out of the Euro, the UK has staved off the biggest dangers of the EU monetary policy, but this can't last. And frankly, I suspect this is at least partially what happened in the US. Trump, the republican candidate, certainly appeared to be to the left, economically, of the democrat candidate at a time when lots of people got systematically worse off. Meanwhile Hillary was proud to show that Wall Street was on her side ... And her opponent Trumpeting mostly economic arguments : jobs, not capital. Production in the US, not globalization. Well, he got elected, she didn't. Must be racism ... right ? Perhaps. I submit that Trump got far more votes from his promise to tax income less and tax imports than is generally believed, especially on this site. I think that partially the democrats have been hijacked by this immigration, tolerance, ... ideology. It has gone too far. Traditionally, of course, the right is pro-immigration (cheap labor, acceptance of very weak employment conditions, tolerant of outright abuse and exploitation), and the left is anti-immigration, because they're trying to improve the position of the poor in society. Improving that position through scarcity of course works.
- flukus 10y ago

throwaway91111 10y ago

Arguably, it's better to elect flawed but representative people. How else are people to learn?

GeneralMayhem 10y ago
People will refuse to learn either way. Better to have someone intelligent at the top protecting them from their own ignorance, short-sightedness, and pettiness than to continue to inflict those traits on everyone by having representatives be glorified remote-control pens.
manicdee 10y ago
Learn what? That the slip from representative democracy to genocide-crazy fascism is one election cycle?
- candiodari 10y ago
  Could you explain how leaving the EU is genocidal and/or fascist ? How it is going to change the government in the UK ?
  - andrewflnr 10y ago
    I'm guessing that was a reference to the US election.
    - mcguire 10y ago
      Or possibly the end of the Weimar Republic.
- vixen99 10y ago
  Does representative democracy equate with EU lawmaking whereby it is the unelected commission that have the sole right to propose legislation'? Yes, that is actually the case, believe it or not.

candiodari 10y ago

So what you're saying is: 1) obviously the UK was in the EU for the past years 2) people voted against this for 2 reasons. One, they're against the EU. Two, they're not happy with how their own lives changed under 1. 3) We should ignore the second argument and go against the will of the people because ... we're smarter and think that argument is wrong ? Because their lives got worse for other reasons, not this policy ? I disagree. When push comes to shove the government is responsible for outcomes. If your policies can't produce good outcomes for everyone, they don't deserve to exist. And frankly, the way the EU is being run, I would vote to leave as well. Not because I'm rightist, quite the opposite. Because I'm an actual leftist: a) the EU is an extreme right government for an electorate that is decidedly NOT extreme-right (tax income, public losses, private profits, too big to fail, DRASTIC action against asset/wealth taxes, ...) We need a leftist government. b) the population is right : globalization is definitely one of the factors that made them worse off. c) the EU's monetary policy is a fantasy. The EU wants to devalue it's currency over time by giving money to the banks and taking it away from governments. This is not what their rhetoric says, but they've been doing it for 15 years now, I find myself unwilling to accept the rhetoric. The EU is built on an economic policy of asset inflation and this is clearly non-negotiable (poor Greeks). I want out. d) So far, by staying out of the Euro, the UK has staved off the biggest dangers of the EU monetary policy, but this can't last. And frankly, I suspect this is at least partially what happened in the US. Trump, the republican candidate, certainly appeared to be to the left, economically, of the democrat candidate at a time when lots of people got systematically worse off. Meanwhile Hillary was proud to show that Wall Street was on her side ... And her opponent Trumpeting mostly economic arguments : jobs, not capital. Production in the US, not globalization. Well, he got elected, she didn't. Must be racism ... right ? Perhaps. I submit that Trump got far more votes from his promise to tax income less and tax imports than is generally believed, especially on this site. I think that partially the democrats have been hijacked by this immigration, tolerance, ... ideology. It has gone too far. Traditionally, of course, the right is pro-immigration (cheap labor, acceptance of very weak employment conditions, tolerant of outright abuse and exploitation), and the left is anti-immigration, because they're trying to improve the position of the poor in society. Improving that position through scarcity of course works.

flukus 10y ago