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remember when there used to be all these articles about how people in europe live longer than americans because they drink red wine and eat more olive oil or bullshit like that? turns out it was universal healthcare the whole time
The industrialists were happy during the Great Depression and resented the New Deal. The US was always about preserving polarized power structures, just with extra obfuscating steps.
Spoiler: The same is true in Europe, but they have been smarter, possibly from centuries more experience they know the peons will only take so much bullshit.
possibly from centuries more experience they know the peons will only take so much bullshit.
Like we don’t share the same history? We came from over there once. I think part of our problem is that too many of us ignore history that didn’t happen on our soil, like it’s irrelevant to us even though it isn’t.
US history as it is taught in US schools is rather hagiographic, suggesting at most we borrowed a few ideas (e.g. the two-house congress), but otherwise were dismissing all that was feudalism. Even our elected officials dressed as officials and not as aristocracy.
So yeah, we also discarded a notion from classic peonage that serfs belonged to the land. Rather we had slaves and waged workers (not that we treated them particularly well.) The American Dream before the California gold rush was an honest day’s work for an honest day’s pay and we were crap at that even then.
I don’t think it’s a cultural effect, I think it’s about power and wealth. As in, the US has more power and wealth at its disposal, so capitalists gain more by corrupting their government than they would other governments. So they spend more money and effort corrupting that place and it gets worse. It is slowly collapsing as the corruption gets worse, I’d say this is a large part of why any centralised power structure collapses - the corruption rots its core until it can no longer sustain itself.
So it’s basically “power corrupts” but on a governmental level rather than an individual one.
It’s odd in many ways the western systems can be corrupt. Often western tourists can be shocked when the corruption is done on a more blatant individual level in other countries. They object to a little money here, there, everywhere makes things work better for the locals in other countries.
The individual workers are getting it for themselves. It’s sort of like tipping but the stakes are for more than just good service. If you want that passport sooner, want to get through to the next zone, or want to get out of this traffic stop “tips” 😉 will be required.
The funny thing is in the west it’s often done on a larger and less noticeable individual scale via lobbying of politicians, judges, and the courts. Then it’s done on smaller scales in small towns with corrupt elected officials for local sheriffs, mayors and school boards. The systems are corrupted higher up for the gain of those in higher positions and feeding those lower down doing the work.
We can also pay directly to these large services for faster passport processing and faster times through airport security. Generally the corruption at the individual level in these western institutions would be identity theft and stolen items from one’s luggage.
The rich elites have always been able to move and sway politicians even up to presidents to their benefit.
To me it’s amazing how they have been able to mobilize so many serfs into voting and getting behind ideas that are terrible for the masses but great for the elite. It’s a masterclass on modern propaganda on how many are fooled by their own emotions via imaginary hot button topics. The think of the children tropes and watch out for those drag queens when it’s priests, coaches, teachers, family members, rich elite, police officers, and politicians (especially those gay hating ones) that are the real threats time and time again.
It’s too far back now for many to recall but "Theodore Roosevelt, understood that economic inequality itself becomes a driver of a dysfunctional political system that benefits the wealthy but few others. As he once famously warned, “There can be no real political democracy unless there is something approaching economic democracy.”
His response to the inequities of his times, which came to define the Progressive Era, have much to teach us now about how to sensibly tackle economic inequality. It’s worthwhile to closely examine the Rooseveltian playbook. For instance, his “Square Deal” made bold changes in the American workplace, government regulation of industry, and consumer protection.
These reforms included mandating safer conditions for miners and eliminating the spoils system in federal hiring; bringing forty-four antitrust suits against big business, resulting in the breakup of the largest railroad monopoly, and regulation of the nation’s largest oil company; and passing the Meat Inspection Act and Pure Food and Drug Act, which created the FDA.
He prosecuted more than twice as many antitrust suits against monopolistic businesses than his three predecessors combined, curbing the robber barons’ power. And he relentlessly cleaned up corruption in the federal government. One-hundred-forty-six indictments were brought against a bribery ring involving public timberlands, culminating in the conviction and imprisonment of a U.S. senator, and forty-four Postal Department employees were charged with fraud and bribery."
The New Deal was great for it’s time and I’m still reminded of it when I visit many of the parks and attractions throughout the US that were built by it providing jobs for many, the Square deal was fairly revolutionary for its day. The power brokers of the day were shocked they couldn’t push Teddy around or bribe him like those that came before. Without him many of the protections that are eroding and being peeled back today would not have even existed.
We can also thank him for National Parks and the protection of these initial areas like Yellowstone. Even as I get to this point it’s amazing how much he was involved with so much that improved our lives to this day. It’s a shame how much of it has been weakened and stripped away since.
