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I think the truth is that the American political system is structured in such a way that substantive policy change is monumentally difficult and not correlated
by BitwiseFool 4y ago
I think the truth is that the American political system is structured in such a way that substantive policy change is monumentally difficult and not correlated with how angry or how vocal the citizenry is about any particular topic. Virtually everyone I know was appalled by the Snowden leaks, yet I know of no one that actually changed their vote. Or, if any candidate ran on dismantling the surveillance state got elected in the aftermath.
- ixtli 4y agoI think this is best illustrated in the pathological US need for every level of the entire infrastructure stack to be revenue positive. The recent whinging about the post office is a great example. Further, people asking "whos going to pay" for trains demonstrates the lack of complex thinking. By way of counter example: the Japanese have figured out how to value the high speed train network by how much business it enables every year as opposed to simply looking at how much it costs vs ticket revenue. This isn't, of course, to imply that somehow Japan is magically better. Just that countries like France and China who have less decrepit, more complete public infrastructure didnt get there by accident.