Contrary to people being contrary for sake of being contrary, there is a common thread in all this that crosses party and national boundry lines: a democracy gap.
A gap between what people in modern democracies, republic or parliamentary, expect and want for their society from their government, and what they get. No one here is getting what they want from their employees - government workers and legislators.
Better yet, let's call them by their rightful name, the democracy aristocracy.
While people are consuming the image of a "democracy-flavored" drink marketed to them the same way dishwashing liquid is sold, they are, in reality, just getting artificially-flavored sugar water to appease them. Keep everyone busy enough saluting their nations flag (whatever colors) and evoking (undefined) 'patriotism' and they won't have time to consider if there is any substance behind the style.
The US is getting older. It's reaching middle age as a country. European countries and cultures had to go through a transition in government styles as resources and economics changed from territorial limits, and long-standing traditions and cultures became entrenched. The US started and expanded into areas of enormous resources, not just the land.
The engines and resources for growth are starting to change in the US, just like it did for smaller countries before. The bureaucracy and aristocracy of governing is growing in the US as fast as it did in Europe. There are more Department of Homeland Security employees than there are active duty US Navy.
Government sector spending has gone from about 22% of GDP after WWII drawdown, to 44% of GDP. It all comes out of the private sector, which is now only about 55% of GDP.
The government industry is:
- double the size of the construction industry.
- bigger than the entire information sector including broadcasting, movies, music, publishing, tele-communications and information technology.
- bigger than the entire real estate industry, including rental and leasing.
- dwarfs the entire health care industry.
- double the entire retail trade industry.
- bigger than all of the banking, finance, investment and insurance industries combined.
No one set out to manufacture this system, it just happens in all societies as they age, democratic or authoritarian, and people consolidate their power in mutual-assistance groups. The "democracy-flavored" drink is an advertised illusion of democracy, but the reality is that it is a "velvet-gloved" feudalism. You don't really have any power to change anything, you just think you do.
Democratic politics is power, derived from money and the purest example of the "Golden Rule" in action: the men with the gold make the rules.
Will the US move even closer to looking like the older European cultures as it ages, except bigger? Probably. The high percentage of "authorities" and their aristocratic rule will see to it. It's in their interest. Government workers are now better compensated than private-sector employees doing comparable work, contrary to what their marketing tries to portray, thus they are truly aristocrats - they control 44% of the entire economy (they hold the gold), and they make the rules. A ruling class.
It was interesting to read some of the comments people made about the French students demonstrating (and winning) recently. They weren't just a bunch of spoiled, lazy, socialist kids. They got a bad rap from the American press mischaracterizing their purpose.
They were motivated to action to force their government to do what they wanted, not what the bureaucrats and corporations wanted. They acted to close the democracy gap.
Corporations act in the best interest of the stockholder, not in the best interest of the people who do the work. In all cases, the stockholders win. They would have been discarded and replaced with a fresh batch of kids when they reached the upper age limit of the program, layed off in a whim for short-term profit, forced to accept longer hours at lower wages and eroding benefits, all take and no give.
Have you ever heard of any government workers accepting pay cuts or reduced benefits?
If they were American, you would have supported and admired them for their spirit and guts to act, and not just accept what the government, in concert with business, was forcing down their throats. They put a line in the sand and said that they were not going to accept being turned into disposable drones in the name of "globalization." There would be a movie-of-the-week about them. Off-topic, so I'm sorry. And sorry about the length of this.
