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Originally Posted by afc wimbledon
We all got the goverments we voted for (or didn't vote for as almost 2/3rds of us don't bother) we have wanted social housing or new jet fighters, universal healthcare or agricultural subsidies and we have also wanted low taxes, so in the end politicians borrowed the money to give us what we want but didn't want to pay for.
In the end what ever a goverment does is up to us because either we are on top of them or prefer to view politics as a form of sport that we view from the sideline.
The reason politicians are beholden to wall street is because, we the voters, are morons and prefer to watch a few tv ads than reading a paper, we will vote for a congressman that spends money on us, while decrying national debt.
If voters read a paper now and then and ignored TV ads politicians would stop needing vast war chests to buy our adhd attention span, therefore special interests would be shut out.
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Quote:
Originally Posted by mikey_the_redneck
I think you're slightly off there.
Most Americans still do pay attention. The problem is the source of their information.
It is something like 5 corporations that head a vast majority of everything Americans are exposed to.
The problem is that they watch one of the few big network stations (CNN, Fox, MSNBC, CBS) that totally dumb them down and draw them into hardcore partisanship. Then there's the flat out lying....
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Still doesn't take away from the point afc is making. He is exactly right. We want subsidies to keep our prices low, we want low-income housing, subsidized education, free food, new military gadgets, etc, etc.....but we don't want to pay for them with more taxes, therefore the government is forced to borrow money in order to provide us with those services.
At least that is how it works in the US.
They want to spend $700 billion on the military, $2 trillion on 'welfare', not to mention pork spending that each Congressman sets aside to make sure he/she gets voted back in, but when it comes to actually PAYING for all that stuff? No new taxes. They want LOWER taxes, while at the same time they INCREASE government spending.
Somehow the US thinks that the tooth fairy is going to make their debt/deficit disappear instead of realizing that either they increase taxes or decrease spending.
The answer is almost certainly half and half.