Government corruption and wealth disparity

[bradly1101]

These are huge problems in western society. We are doing well on pretty much all other fronts with these two being the biggest exceptions. What are the characteristic problems of, and solutions to these issues?
Some of us know the feeling of struggling just to get by while some rich person gambles away large sums of money or drives around in a car that could have bought your family a home to live in. The governance of the west and the US in general may play a part in why this is so much more common here than in other areas. What's your take?

I was just thinking about corruption. I can't believe that we don't consider it to be corruption when so many of our supposed leaders in Washington are in the pockets of so many lobbyists. It's all pay to play while we look the other way. Look how many laws were loosened with the help of the NRA; it's their forte. And gun manufacturers are laughing all the way to the bank.

Money>Lives

{yeah I know P&N is that way<<<}

 

[cbrunny]

In Canada donation limits are pretty low. Parties have a per-vote subsidy (that is being phased out, I think... I can't remember, I'll have to look it up). They use that money plus whatever fundraising they can do to run campaigns.

But ours are only about 40 days, and that's considered on the longer side. There are signs of campaigns ahead of that but they tend to be relatively infrequent. How you can possibly tolerate a two year campaign cycle is beyond me. Problem number 1 is to shorten the campaign down to a more reasonable length.

 

[moonbogg]

The title of your thread says "Government" how much more political can get dimwit? The the frell out of there

Jesus Christ. When are you going to start acting like a lady?

 

[Ruptga]

Without "bribes" how would people fund campaigns? There are donation limits. What else do you want in that area?

Uh, a 0.1% income tax feeds into one campaign account, each candidate gets an equal share of whatever is in the pot, and no other sources of campaign funding are allowed. Super easy.

 

[Sonikku]

Strict caps on campaign donations and lobbying would go a long way to reducing corruption in the US.

Strict caps on campaign donations? Good thing we just increased them ten fold. D:

 

[DesiPower]

Jesus Christ. When are you going to start acting like a lady?

seriously, stop trolling, follow the forum rules and GFTO. Just because nobody read and responds to your threads and posts in P&N and DC does not mean that you can bring your filth here

 

[JM Aggie08]

You're everything that's wrong with forums, OP.

 

[JM Aggie08]

Look, it got moved!

Stupid fuck.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I try to spend as little time worrying about how many people have better lives than me as possible. That's not to say that I don't think about it. If anything, I'm taking notes to see if I can improve my own life by stealing a page out of their books. I just don't worry about it. I don't seethe over it. I don't expect them to help me just because they have it better than I do. I don't think I deserve that life unless I can build it for myself, and I'm certainly not looking to them to give it to me. Whether they deserve it or not isn't something I'm concerned about either. Doesn't matter if they're trust fund babies or brilliant entrepreneurs to me. The solution to my problems will never be being angry at them for what they have. Internalize everything.

 

[poofyhairguy]

I try to spend as little time worrying about how many people have better lives than me as possible. That's not to say that I don't think about it. If anything, I'm taking notes to see if I can improve my own life by stealing a page out of their books. I just don't worry about it. I don't seethe over it. I don't expect them to help me just because they have it better than I do. I don't think I deserve that life unless I can build it for myself, and I'm certainly not looking to them to give it to me. Whether they deserve it or not isn't something I'm concerned about either. Doesn't matter if they're trust fund babies or brilliant entrepreneurs to me. The solution to my problems will never be being angry at them for what they have. Internalize everything.

The problem is those people have a disproportionate level of political representation compared to you. Each to their own is fine when everyone has an equal vote, but when the Kochs and Soros hijack the system suddenly you have to be concerned with what the 1% do (or more exactly what they want) because it will effect your life.

Heck it has gotten to the point that when I am trying to pick who to vote for I pull up OpenSecrets.org and pick the candidate that is paid best by the industries I like the most.

 

[moonbogg]

I try to spend as little time worrying about how many people have better lives than me as possible. That's not to say that I don't think about it. If anything, I'm taking notes to see if I can improve my own life by stealing a page out of their books. I just don't worry about it. I don't seethe over it. I don't expect them to help me just because they have it better than I do. I don't think I deserve that life unless I can build it for myself, and I'm certainly not looking to them to give it to me. Whether they deserve it or not isn't something I'm concerned about either. Doesn't matter if they're trust fund babies or brilliant entrepreneurs to me. The solution to my problems will never be being angry at them for what they have. Internalize everything.

You don't think the game is rigged?

 

[IronWing]

Hey Moonbogg, welcome to P&N! You poor bastard.

 

[moonbogg]

Hey Moonbogg, welcome to P&N! You poor bastard.

Hey that's alright. This is where the rubber meets the road, right?

 

[IronWing]

Hey that's alright. This is where the rubber meets the road, right?

Where the poop meets the scoop.

 

[cbrunny]

This thread turned to shit.

 

[moonbogg]

This thread turned to shit.

You shut your G-d damn mouth.

 

[SlitheryDee]

You don't think the game is rigged?

Doesn't matter. As long as it's possible to succeed, there's no one to blame but you for not succeeding. I can still work harder and be smarter and have a lot, or I can do nothing, be nothing, and have nothing. Nothing any rich person does has changed that. The game certainly doesn't feel rigged though. I make a comfortable living running my business. At it's current rate of growth I could be making a lot more in 10 years. I have to work long hours with no time off to do it, but if that's the price I'll gladly pay it. If the game were truly rigged, my success wouldn't be possible. I don't compare myself to anyone else though. My only baseline was where I started out vs. where I am now. I'm undoubtedly better off than I was then. That someone else out there is most certainly doing even better is not even on my radar. I don't want anything from those people anyway, so why fixate on them?

 

[moonbogg]

Doesn't matter. As long as it's possible to succeed, there's no one to blame but you for not succeeding. I can still work harder and be smarter and have a lot, or I can do nothing, be nothing, and have nothing. Nothing any rich person does has changed that. The game certainly doesn't feel rigged though. I make a comfortable living running my business. At it's current rate of growth I could be making a lot more in 10 years. I have to work long hours with no time off to do it, but if that's the price I'll gladly pay it. If the game were truly rigged, my success wouldn't be possible. I don't compare myself to anyone else though. My only baseline was where I started out vs. where I am now. I'm undoubtedly better off than I was then. That someone else out there is most certainly doing even better is not even on my radar. I don't want anything from those people anyway, so why fixate on them?

Its not just about the little guy. Its about a system which enables the strong to overpower the weak in a way which most people would consider outside the law. But the law is knowingly manipulated to give special players their special advantage. Too much is at stake to actually allow true freedom to take place. That would threaten people who have some very large projects they are working on.

 

[First]

This thread turned to shit.

His every utterance is pretty shitty, hence his threads follow suit.

 

[norseamd]

What's your take?

We need Xi Jinping.

 

[norseamd]

His every utterance is pretty shitty, hence his threads follow suit.

So are you Jehovah Witness or LDS?

Edit: Nevermind. I read this topic going up so I did not see the rest of the discussion.

 

[norseamd]

government corruption in the West? Have you seen the rest of the world? Western countries are amongst the least corrupt...

Applying epistemology how can we prevent the corruption of society believing that western countries constructing their own world corruption ranking and placing themselves first is not true?

 

[Ruptga]

Yeah, this thread has failed pretty hard. You should have quit while you were ahead.

 

[TheSlamma]

Clearly OP either doesn't have a passport or one that doesn't have hardly any stamps in it.

While the USA isn't a dream boat for corruption it's not even close to bad to over 80% of the countries of the world. Try going to Argentina and when you are on a bus in the back country and the military stops it and gives all non-Latin people a shakedown and the only way out is handing them cash then you will be humbled as to what corruption really looks like. Until then I guess all you have is the typical self hate, every other country is better cause I read about it on Huffpo perspective.

 

[Ruptga]

Clearly OP either doesn't have a passport or one that doesn't have hardly any stamps in it.

While the USA isn't a dream boat for corruption it's not even close to bad to over 80% of the countries of the world. Try going to Argentina and when you are on a bus in the back country and the military stops it and gives all non-Latin people a shakedown and the only way out is handing them cash then you will be humbled as to what corruption really looks like. Until then I guess all you have is the typical self hate, every other country is better cause I read about it on Huffpo perspective.

I've been to places where we were encouraged to pay traffic tickets at the time that they were given out. You know, to cut down on paperwork. That sort of thing made me tolerate corruption at home even less. It's not enough to be better than some shithole nobody cares about, I want to leave them so far behind that their children can't even hope to catch up.