Why you feel america is failing

[bigdrick323]

That comment is just silly

I am away from my computer, being lazy!

[evandael]

Really? Do you not read history books? (perhaps they've banned those in Texas already..) Look at every nation/civilization/empire that has preceded the US.. slow beginnings, exponential growth, a plateau, a peak, and then the mirror image in decay towards absolution.

With our current trajectory (ie, applying the same, near 250 year old and antiquated guidelines, and the questionable 'American exceptionalism' approach to interpreting those guidelines), this nation is reaching the peak of the bell curve.


Perhaps I do believe there is a problem with America. America is afraid (unwilling) to admit fault, renew and revise, and move on.

[sumoashe]

evandael makes a valid point, history has shown this over and over. The tighter we hold onto to the old the more we rebuff the new. All things in nature must evolve or die, this includes nations.

[Cletonius]

Also a lacking work ethic

IMHO this goes hand in hand
with lack of accountability. If you're accountable you get shit done, if you're not you don't.

evandael makes a valid point, history has shown this over and over. The tighter we hold onto to the old the more we rebuff the new. All things in nature must evolve or die, this includes nations.

This. Exactly.

The USA is a relatively new nation in the grand scheme of things, we're just going through the natural historical cycle. It would've been nice if we would've learned from history, but that's not how society works anymore.

[MonkeyMan]

I like this thread..
I'm glad to see I'm not alone in my feelings about what's really wrong with this country..
It's amazing to see the 'monkey see, monkey do' method in action, on a very large scale.. as well as the mass ignorance to it.
American society has become a giant flock of vultures - if word gets out that there's a free ride of any kind (or a ticket to some form of laziness), people exploit it to death until it becomes an expected social norm.. this way of living spreads like a virus, and all the while there's another society in the world just waiting for us to get to a certain point of weakness before they bury us.

although it's true that every empire ultimately comes to an end, it's scary to think that it just might happen in your lifetime..

[iamsam]

The problem with learning from history is that the applicable time cycle of history that we ought to be learning from is over twice as long as any man's lifetime, thus it is impossible for any human to fully learn from history through experience.

Also, evan, is it a bell curve? I doubt it's really a true Gaussian curve... ;)

[Wiglaf]

In regards to the original post.. I think people would be more active in government if we felt that we could make any sort of difference. Right now it's the rich boy's club, it doesn't seem to matter who you vote for, things don't change. If someone gets in there with good intentions to hammer on the system they are met with resistance at every step. And the people who do stand up? Look at the OWS movement. Anything remotely organized is met with such ridiculous overreaction and dismissive attitude that you can't help but feel helpless. Petitions for the white house to respond to particular issues has produced nothing but statements of the obvious.

I believe the root cause of all of this is income inequality. No matter how hard we try to make it so you can't buy laws, it happens and people will find a way. I don't think anyone in congress is any less than a millionare. When people are given preferential treatment, able to buy lobbyists, etc, how can the average man compete for equality?

Pick any issue. Copyright? Who is defending the consumers? Hardly anyone. RIAA spends millions in lobbyists each year to push a maximalist copyright agenda that hurts consumers (and themselves in the long run).
Energy? Oil companies push their agenda to keep fossil fuels as top dog and squash alternative energy efforts.
Transportation? Our transit systems have been broken/derailed/eliminated, in 99% of the country you NEED to own a car.
Drugs? Insurance? Healthcare? Patents? You name it, and there's a 1%'r who's bent the law to keep themselves in power at the expense of the consumer.
The more crooked the law, the more likely it is the get rammed through in a hurry before anyone can read it, or tacked onto something completely unrelated.

I think the single best thing that can happen to straighten our course is for government to behave as if they are servants of the people, not the other way around. Through their actions they have largely become an entity in which nobody trusts, and in recent years has twisted or ignored it's own laws to railroad whistleblowers and even just copyright infringers, drug dealers, etc. It's downright scary.

Public records need to be freely available and searchable, not locked behind a service that charges money per page.

Communications and business should be conducted in a way in which whistleblowers pose no risk. If the information going public looks that bad then you shouldn't be doing it. And why is it nearly impossible to get someone out of office??

All bills, laws, treatys, in FINAL form, should be published in full for a minimum time period before being voted and signed for a chance for PUBLIC appeal or approval.
Public introduction of laws/changes for congress to consider should not be met with laughable dismissal.

Fix the fucking fed and our economic future already. Stop taking money from programs like social security and causing uncertainty for the future of those programs.

There's been a lot of apocalyptic depressing talk, mostly on part of fox and friend's 6 year campaign to make it sound like Obama will cause the end of the world. They are full of shit, and shame on them for causing the most massive divide of our country I have ever seen, the most depressing outlook of our country I have ever seen, and promoting the farce that one man has that much power in our nation. We aren't out of this yet, but there are definitely ways we can improve, and we NEED to because China is really getting their shit together. We can't have all of congress playing stupid dick-waving games all year and remain #1.

[Dozyproductions]

Honest opinion? Everything about American culture seems like a giant marketing campaign. At that point it's no longer marketing... its conditioning.

[BraveUlysses]

Honest opinion? Everything about American culture seems like a giant marketing campaign. At that point it's no longer marketing... its conditioning.

+1 to this.

Consumer whores gonna whore

[King Mufasa]

I think we have a great leader that is fighting hard for America. And is setting the path to the right direction. We arent falling we are rebuilding after a war and after an almost decade of failed policies of the Bush administration.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...s-revival.html

When America is hurt other country's fall. We are going through some hurdles but we will prevail. Remember the 1929 crash, yes we know our history and we learn from them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i9CSbUXTYqI

Iam confident we will prevail again every one else depends on it too

[iamsam]

Honest opinion? Everything about American culture seems like a giant marketing campaign. At that point it's no longer marketing... its conditioning.

very very very true. every time I go to a shopping mall the marketing and materialism makes me sick.

I think we have a great leader that is fighting hard for America. And is setting the path to the right direction. We arent falling we are rebuilding after a war and after an almost decade of failed policies of the Bush administration.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-0...s-revival.html

When America is hurt other country's fall. We are going through some hurdles but we will prevail. Remember the 1929 crash, yes we know our history and we learn from them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=i9CSbUXTYqI

Iam confident we will prevail again every one else depends on it too

yeah I dunno about all that. I'm not so sure Obama is doing that much good.

[Dozyproductions]

edit: sorry.

very very very true. every time I go to a shopping mall the marketing and materialism makes me sick.

Edward Bernay's; The man's philosophy is what makes our 'democracy' turn today.

[sumoashe]

Obama can only do so much, as any president. Without the populace backing and forcing change instead of simply jumping to the next hot ticket issue it all becomes a pointless cycle. We've been debating the same issue's for decades. We never stay on something long enough to make sure change occurs. It's like a national A.D.D. (no offence to people with a.d.d.). I understand everyone has differing priorities as far as the issue's go, but that's no excuse. Until we force our so called leaders to do their job and punish them when they don't nothing will change. We forget that they only have the power we grant them. And there's a hell of alot more of us than them.

[Dozyproductions]

ADD and ADHD shouldn't even be mentionable conditions. We as a race can't define normal behavior thus anything that's out of the ordinary is immediately labeled as something that some sort of pill can fix. A problem that fits with the bigger picture for what's wrong because it's further conditioning for the belief that the human 'condition' is one that is flawed. And yes I've been tested positive for an extreme case of ADHD ;)

[sumoashe]

Sorry dozy, bad choice of words on my part there. Just trying to make the point we never stay on one issue long enough to fix it. By the time progress actually starts the issue is pushed to the back burner for the next hot one in the news. There is a definite feeling of helplessness with the country. In terms of people feeling that there is nothing they can do. And yes, when it comes to voting things are pretty much useless. But that doesn't mean that we can't do anything. The shear numbers we have are more than enough to inact change. Think of things like the million man march, but on a grander scale. Imagine if just 30% of the national workforce stayed home for a day. Things along these lines aren't difficult. But the fact is most american's are to scared to do even that. We have an irrational fear of the gov, which is why they can get away with anything.