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I’m actually not terribly worried about food prices being high. Or the general price level being high. What worries me is there is no political way forward. Po

I’m actually not terribly worried about food prices being high. Or the general price level being high. What worries me is there is no political way forward. Politics used to be about compromise. Nowadays it is about wasting as much time as possible, while not making any meaningful policy changes. This will come back to bite our elected officials at all levels.

Griffinsauce 5y ago
> This will come back to bite our elected officials No it will mostly bite the lower classes among their constituents.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
Fckd 5y ago
yeah, like your elected officials are not getting money from business and not doing insider trading.
dgellow 5y ago
I guess you're talking about the US? Or do you have another country in mind? Lot of places outside of the US have a working, multi-party, dynamic political systems and are doing meaningful changes.
- mdiesel 5y ago
  Do they have a safeguard against becoming like the US? By which I mean doubling down on core support base rather than seeking to convert opposition, and using populist rhetoric rather than traditional debate. If not then it is only a matter of time. A new charismatic leader who says the right things emerges, and system is pushed to breaking point. The US might be the first, but Trump's lasting legacy will be proving to the world that politics can be played this way.
  - simongray 5y ago
    When people have 10 different ideological choices, it doesn't matter as much. I'm pretty sure that the Republican party would be represented by e.g. a Traditional Liberal party, a Conservative party, a National Conservative party, and perhaps small fascist party in any traditional European democracy. And that Traditional Liberal party would also contain a whole bunch of Democrats.
    - mdiesel 5y ago
      Yes, a multi-party system if far better. But over time, if the rhetoric is "if you aren't for us you're against us" and "a vote for SmallParty is a vote for Enemy" we trend towards two. We justify it to ourselves by saying that although we don't support everything OurSide says, it's far preferable to Them.
      - Vinnl 5y ago
        I'm being an armchair politicologist here, but parties that do that tend to get isolated by the other parties, as a result don't get to govern, and as a result don't grow further. The fact that parties are destined to cooperate also forces them to tone down the "if you aren't with us you're against us" rhetoric.
        rhn_mk1 5y ago
        Ironically, when NSDAP rose to power, this is how their competing parties neutralised themselves (according to what I remember from The Origins of Totalitarianism).
      - pjc50 5y ago
        > "a vote for SmallParty is a vote for Enemy" This is only really true in FPTP systems. In any of the transferable vote or alternative vote systems that's far less of a problem.
        simongray 5y ago
kasperni 5y ago
> I’m actually not terribly worried about food prices being high. No, but you are probably middle or upper class in a western country (I'm guessing the US). But there are other countries in the world where half of your income goes to food. For them rising food prices is a catastrophe.
Cthulhu_ 5y ago
> This will come back to bite our elected officials at all levels. It should, but as recent years have shown, consequences for bad decisions from the higher-ups are laughable and they get away with anything. Democracy is in shambles, and the checks and balances are nowhere to be found.
mellavora 5y ago
you should be. High food prices are one of the regular triggers of public uprisings/revolts. Hopefully you don't get one where you live, but in a globalized economy, it doesn't have to be 'where you live' to affect you. But I see your point, the US (I'm assuming?) is stuck in political impasse.
tomp 5y ago
This is a commonly repeated trope that is 100% false. In the beginning of COVID pandemic, both Germany (one of the biggest and "slowest" EU country) and US passed very comprehensive laws to counter the pandemic crash. There was very strong bipartisan support, because (1) something needed to be done, and (2) the solution seemed quite obvious. Since then, there has been disagreement about both whether anything needs to be done, and about what exactly that is; hence, nothing has happened. In contrast to common fear-mongering, this is democracy working as it should - broadly agreed-upon things happen quickly, contentious things happen slowly or not at all.

Griffinsauce 5y ago

> This will come back to bite our elected officials No it will mostly bite the lower classes among their constituents.

deleted 5y ago
[deleted]

Fckd 5y ago

yeah, like your elected officials are not getting money from business and not doing insider trading.

dgellow 5y ago

I guess you're talking about the US? Or do you have another country in mind? Lot of places outside of the US have a working, multi-party, dynamic political systems and are doing meaningful changes.

mdiesel 5y ago
Do they have a safeguard against becoming like the US? By which I mean doubling down on core support base rather than seeking to convert opposition, and using populist rhetoric rather than traditional debate. If not then it is only a matter of time. A new charismatic leader who says the right things emerges, and system is pushed to breaking point. The US might be the first, but Trump's lasting legacy will be proving to the world that politics can be played this way.
- simongray 5y ago
  When people have 10 different ideological choices, it doesn't matter as much. I'm pretty sure that the Republican party would be represented by e.g. a Traditional Liberal party, a Conservative party, a National Conservative party, and perhaps small fascist party in any traditional European democracy. And that Traditional Liberal party would also contain a whole bunch of Democrats.
  - mdiesel 5y ago
    Yes, a multi-party system if far better. But over time, if the rhetoric is "if you aren't for us you're against us" and "a vote for SmallParty is a vote for Enemy" we trend towards two. We justify it to ourselves by saying that although we don't support everything OurSide says, it's far preferable to Them.
    - Vinnl 5y ago
      I'm being an armchair politicologist here, but parties that do that tend to get isolated by the other parties, as a result don't get to govern, and as a result don't grow further. The fact that parties are destined to cooperate also forces them to tone down the "if you aren't with us you're against us" rhetoric.
      - rhn_mk1 5y ago
        Ironically, when NSDAP rose to power, this is how their competing parties neutralised themselves (according to what I remember from The Origins of Totalitarianism).
    - pjc50 5y ago
      > "a vote for SmallParty is a vote for Enemy" This is only really true in FPTP systems. In any of the transferable vote or alternative vote systems that's far less of a problem.
      - simongray 5y ago

kasperni 5y ago

> I’m actually not terribly worried about food prices being high. No, but you are probably middle or upper class in a western country (I'm guessing the US). But there are other countries in the world where half of your income goes to food. For them rising food prices is a catastrophe.

Cthulhu_ 5y ago

> This will come back to bite our elected officials at all levels. It should, but as recent years have shown, consequences for bad decisions from the higher-ups are laughable and they get away with anything. Democracy is in shambles, and the checks and balances are nowhere to be found.

mellavora 5y ago

you should be. High food prices are one of the regular triggers of public uprisings/revolts. Hopefully you don't get one where you live, but in a globalized economy, it doesn't have to be 'where you live' to affect you. But I see your point, the US (I'm assuming?) is stuck in political impasse.

tomp 5y ago

This is a commonly repeated trope that is 100% false. In the beginning of COVID pandemic, both Germany (one of the biggest and "slowest" EU country) and US passed very comprehensive laws to counter the pandemic crash. There was very strong bipartisan support, because (1) something needed to be done, and (2) the solution seemed quite obvious. Since then, there has been disagreement about both whether anything needs to be done, and about what exactly that is; hence, nothing has happened. In contrast to common fear-mongering, this is democracy working as it should - broadly agreed-upon things happen quickly, contentious things happen slowly or not at all.