jennypenny wrote: ↑Sat Nov 14, 2020 12:58 pm
The biggest difference I've observed is that some are sick of the free-for-all and are willing to give up a lot of ground to authorities so that life can be more routine/peaceful/predictable. Others feel that the current free-for-all is the pain that comes with living in a democratic society -- that these painful periods of are the cost we pay for living in a society where people are mostly free to do as they wish. That difference seems to determine whether a person sees our democracy as succeeding or failing.
I have been thinking about this very topic for the last few months.
I've always believed freedom to be THE most important thing a government has to guarantee.
Lately though, I've started to think we have reached a tipping point in terms of average incompetence of the western leaders that makes it more desirable for me to trade away some freedom in exchange for better quality government.
I look at Italy for example, a country I love with heaps of qualities and huge potential.
It has been through such a run of completely inadequate leaders/governments that it has been stuck in mud for the last 25 years. Look it up. real GDP per capita in Italy today is lower than it was in 1996. In Europe, only Greece has managed to fare worse.
- We have an aging population and politicians who are only concerned with the next election (which in italy tend to happen frequently due to backstabbing/unstable coalitions) keep kicking the can down the road with pension reform, which will obviously lead to the unfulfillment of promises to future generations (the US has the same problem).
- We have a ridiculously bloated and comically inefficient public sector (really, when I hear americans talk about their big government I always laugh),which again politicians are afraid to touch because 1- they exert power over it and 2- it's a huge reservoir of votes.
- In general, we have the privilege of paying scandinavian-level taxes to get second world-level public service in exchange.
In Italy though, people enjoy a very high level of freedom.
Now when I compare this with say Singapore, which is basically a soft dictatorship, I cannot help but notice how things work flawlessly, how public sector corruption is almost non-existent, how the quality of education is sky high, how they plan 30-50 years ahead as opposed to 3-4 months.
I honestly think that now, I'd prefer the latter. I've basically came to realize that what I want from my government is not as much freedom as possible, but rather to maximize quality of life for the overall population.
In a similar way, I vastly prefer hanging around here where the "enlightened dictatorship" of jacob sets rules that make this place much more enjoyable and enriching from my point of view.
(my favorite rule of all is the NO MEME rule)