Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community - View Single Post - Is the US government broken beyond repair?

Mantus · 04-25-2011, 02:27 PM

I argue that the US government is broken and I don't see any possibility of things getting better.

I'm a Canadian citizen living in Costa Rica. Both countries are heavily influenced by US events. The whole world has it's hand on America's pulse because if this country falls apart the global political, financial and social landscape will change drastically. I'm guilty of following US politics more than my own. The more I learn about the current state of affairs in Washington the more I believe that US politics is broken beyond repair and Washing is no longer capable of governing it's country.

As an example lets compare three healthcare systems. The following numbers are from WHO 2006.

US life expectancy is 75 and 80 for men and women. Health care costs $6,714 per person annually or 15.3% of GDP.

Canadian numbers are 78/83 with a cost of $3,672 or 10% GDP.

Costa Rica is at 76/80 with only $743 spent per person or 7% GDP.

Both the Canadian and Costa Rican healthcare systems are far from perfect but they are still superior the the US system. Clearly the US system is broken. Clearly it requires a complete overhaul. Yet neither the Democrats nor GOP are willing to make drastic changes. I don't know how many times I've read a conservative arguments about how a social healthcare system is inefficient and how in an ideal world private healthcare will be cheaper and better for all.

This isn't an ideal world. If I'm running a company and my options are between a not-so perfect solution or continuing to pay twice as much for a service the “corporate” thing to do is implement a flawed system rather than do nothing at all and continue to bleed money.

Yet the government has continued to do nothing about health care for decades. The US political system is completely paralyzed by ideological quagmire. The outdated socialist bogyman and capitalism/free market dogma is preventing people from using simple logic.

GOP is like the Catholic church. They are willing to let their country get raped for the sake of ideological posturing. Democrats are impotent and lacking any direction. They are all talk at best; equality culpable at worst. This leaves the US in a precarious position.

As another example of this I look at the recent financial crisis and how it was handled. If I'm to believe my sources the system was never fixed but simply reset with hope of things going better this time around. We see that the government is incapable of running an economy while being dependent on it. When a country's government is incapable of benefiting it's people (health care) while being of benefit to it's corporations (bailouts) it has become a corporate socialist state.

Your thoughts would be much appreciated. I still have much to learn.

Cheers!

04-25-2011, 02:27 PM	#1 (permalink)
Mantus lascivious	Is the US government broken beyond repair? I argue that the US government is broken and I don't see any possibility of things getting better. I'm a Canadian citizen living in Costa Rica. Both countries are heavily influenced by US events. The whole world has it's hand on America's pulse because if this country falls apart the global political, financial and social landscape will change drastically. I'm guilty of following US politics more than my own. The more I learn about the current state of affairs in Washington the more I believe that US politics is broken beyond repair and Washing is no longer capable of governing it's country. As an example lets compare three healthcare systems. The following numbers are from WHO 2006. US life expectancy is 75 and 80 for men and women. Health care costs $6,714 per person annually or 15.3% of GDP. Canadian numbers are 78/83 with a cost of $3,672 or 10% GDP. Costa Rica is at 76/80 with only $743 spent per person or 7% GDP. Both the Canadian and Costa Rican healthcare systems are far from perfect but they are still superior the the US system. Clearly the US system is broken. Clearly it requires a complete overhaul. Yet neither the Democrats nor GOP are willing to make drastic changes. I don't know how many times I've read a conservative arguments about how a social healthcare system is inefficient and how in an ideal world private healthcare will be cheaper and better for all. This isn't an ideal world. If I'm running a company and my options are between a not-so perfect solution or continuing to pay twice as much for a service the “corporate” thing to do is implement a flawed system rather than do nothing at all and continue to bleed money. Yet the government has continued to do nothing about health care for decades. The US political system is completely paralyzed by ideological quagmire. The outdated socialist bogyman and capitalism/free market dogma is preventing people from using simple logic. GOP is like the Catholic church. They are willing to let their country get raped for the sake of ideological posturing. Democrats are impotent and lacking any direction. They are all talk at best; equality culpable at worst. This leaves the US in a precarious position. As another example of this I look at the recent financial crisis and how it was handled. If I'm to believe my sources the system was never fixed but simply reset with hope of things going better this time around. We see that the government is incapable of running an economy while being dependent on it. When a country's government is incapable of benefiting it's people (health care) while being of benefit to it's corporations (bailouts) it has become a corporate socialist state. Your thoughts would be much appreciated. I still have much to learn. Cheers!