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I've lived in both countries. While Americans are very strong believers in democracy, Americans trust their government much less than than people in smaller cou

I've lived in both countries. While Americans are very strong believers in democracy, Americans trust their government much less than than people in smaller countries. It may be directly related to the problem of empathy at a distance. There are things that I would trust the Australian Government to do that I would not trust the US Government to do, not because I think the Australian politicians are more competent or trustworthy, but because the United States population is 13 times greater, making a human connection between politicians and and constituents, keeping trust and accountability is an order of magnitude easier with a population that's an order of magnitude smaller.

hunterb123 5y ago
We don't trust the government because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and history repeats itself. That's what a constitution is for, it's an agreement between the people and government on how they wish to be governed. Ours sets out our God given rights that no government should be able to take away. The Australian government hasn't been too kind to its people recently during covid, carrying people off for facebook posts, not a great example.
- monkeycantype 5y ago
  Someone in our prime ministers own government just described him as a man with no moral compass who uses 'his so-called faith as a marketing advantage' But the Australian population is much smaller, which means the public have a much smaller task keeping the government in line. You can't keep brazen narcissist kleptomaniacs entirely in line of course, but you can keep it to the level where they're not buying superyachts. I think this different context leads Australians to have some very different ideas about Government to Americans. We know power corrupts, but we don't see the Australian government as an arena where it is possible to attain absolute power, we don't see it as a vehicle someone can ride to outright despotism. There are people in the government in Australia would love to be despots, would love to rule the nation with an iron fist. The clown who renamed the 'Customs and Border Protection Service' to 'Border Force' and made all the uniforms black (ok really really dark blue) would love to be proclaimed eternal wise father of the nation, but we don't believe he's got a hope of getting that past us. We are more trusting of government not because we are naive, but because a nation of 330 million is a very different beast to a nation of 25 million

hunterb123 5y ago

We don't trust the government because power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely, and history repeats itself. That's what a constitution is for, it's an agreement between the people and government on how they wish to be governed. Ours sets out our God given rights that no government should be able to take away. The Australian government hasn't been too kind to its people recently during covid, carrying people off for facebook posts, not a great example.

monkeycantype 5y ago
Someone in our prime ministers own government just described him as a man with no moral compass who uses 'his so-called faith as a marketing advantage' But the Australian population is much smaller, which means the public have a much smaller task keeping the government in line. You can't keep brazen narcissist kleptomaniacs entirely in line of course, but you can keep it to the level where they're not buying superyachts. I think this different context leads Australians to have some very different ideas about Government to Americans. We know power corrupts, but we don't see the Australian government as an arena where it is possible to attain absolute power, we don't see it as a vehicle someone can ride to outright despotism. There are people in the government in Australia would love to be despots, would love to rule the nation with an iron fist. The clown who renamed the 'Customs and Border Protection Service' to 'Border Force' and made all the uniforms black (ok really really dark blue) would love to be proclaimed eternal wise father of the nation, but we don't believe he's got a hope of getting that past us. We are more trusting of government not because we are naive, but because a nation of 330 million is a very different beast to a nation of 25 million