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> Our government is broken, but generally the US lets problems get really inefficiently bad, then overcorrects, so I hope that will happen in the next 20 years.
by ashishgandhi 14y ago
> Our government is broken, but generally the US lets problems get really inefficiently bad, then overcorrects, so I hope that will happen in the next 20 years.
That's something as an outsider living here in since around last December I've noticed. Your government is quite broken. But it somehow still works. (Paradox, I know!) For instance, the healthcare bill that was recently passed largely solves the textbook problem of information asymmetry in the health insurance market. It almost didn't pass, but it did. Same seems about the immigration laws - although they are yet to be "fixed". It's a country where, ironically, a "professional news organization" like Fox News exists at the same time with with a "comedy" show like the Colbert Report.
> Unless something major changes, the American focus on consumption will eventually erode our influence around the globe.
That's a quote from the original article. I don't quite see how consumption is wrong. Especially, since from what I see, consumption here in the US is based on the idea of buying things that solve problems. That give people the incentive to invent tools to solve problems. Trust me there are a lot of countries where they don't like to spend money at all (consume). There are everyday problems there that aren't solved because tools invented for them will not be bought. Your quality of life is stagnant if "buy only bare minimum" is the model you want to follow.
- eru 14y ago> Trust me there are a lot of countries where they don't like to spend money at all (consume). Are you talking about Germany?
- pm90 14y ago(disclaimer: i'm not the op) India, South Korea, Japan and so on. All have astronomical savings rate. All that money is locked up in the banks and not flowing to the people who need it the most (need==to make/market their innovation/products), because the delivery system is so broken and there is so little trust
- geuis 14y agoThat's an interesting viewpoint about consumption in the US I haven't considered. As an American who dislikes the wasteful consumption I see around me, my comment about your perspective is that many Americans don't purchase items to actually solve problems they really have. Much of it is wasteful on things like fashion, home furnishings, countless crap kitchen gadgets, etc. Things that people think will help them but don't. That being said, your point about under consumption and unwillingness to improve life by buying better basics to solve problems is something new to me.
- einhverfr 14y agoEvery government is broken btw. In most of the world it still works because you pay an agent to take care of things for you, and in all honestly a large part of your fee probably ends up in bribes to various people but at least you have plausible deniability.....