The Truth About Democracy

[Baruch]

Regular beatings from your betters ;-)  Beatings for being poor, beatings for being stupid, beatings for being ugly, beatings for poor hygiene ... and every other social negative attribute.  The peasants are in fact, revolting (so says RMoney and Hitlery).  Reread Edmund Burke's writings.

I would suggest, that people in Switzerland know their place.

[Sal1981]

I can't tell if you're serious.

[Baruch]

I was commenting in Reasonist.  If I remember, he is Austrian.  Not unlike the Swiss.

[reasonist]

I was commenting in Reasonist.  If I remember, he is Austrian.  Not unlike the Swiss.

Yes, but I don't get the connection, Baruch. I wasn't familiar with Edmund Burke's writings and had to look it up. He disliked democracies but did he propose a better system? What is the connection to Switzerland?

[Baruch]

Yes, but I don't get the connection, Baruch. I wasn't familiar with Edmund Burke's writings and had to look it up. He disliked democracies but did he propose a better system? What is the connection to Switzerland?

One can focus on more than one thing at a time, in pool more than two balls can be in play at the same time.  Switzerland and Austria are near each other, cousins really.  And of course Edmund Burke could see some problems in the American and especially the French experiment.  Didn't Switzerland assume its modern form in reaction to Napoleon as the Helvetic Confederation?  In his case he was shilling for the king's shilling ... the British Empire.  When was it that Switzerland finally allowed women to vote?  Is that the beginning of the end for them?

I just have to be a little less chauvinist, and see America thru British eyes.  The point of the OP is the truth about democracy, is it not?

[reasonist]

Absolutely, that's the point.
The Swiss confederation is about 800 years old. I still am in awe how these four (essentially 5 with Schwiizerdutsch) languages and cultures get along so fine. Yes, they are a very conservative bunch and were one of the last countries to allow women to vote and yet one of the first with a female president.
Switzerland is the wealthiest country in the world, has the best health care system in the world, best education system (over 100 Nobel price winners if I remember correctly) full employment and no war for over 160 years.
Now I love my country but shouldn't we always take better ways into consideration? Not all is perfect of course, any political system is a human construct and must be by definition imperfect. But we should be cherry picking other, better working systems. Your ugly election should be a reminder of the civility and respect that's missing in today's political discourse and see how your two party system divides a country.

[SGOS]

Like a lot of other places, we are taught the US is the best at everything.  Some of us even believe the US invented democracy.  So it's pointless to change after you think you have reached perfection.

[Cavebear]

So what's the solution? Build new 'tracks'? Or new trains? You won't wipe out greed and profit, which drives any economy. I remember well when my parents took us to Bulgaria for vacation. It was still communist ruled under Ceausescu. Every store, from ice cream parlors to drug stores closed as soon as they sold their quota. No incentive to sell more, off to the beach at noon. That's why communism never worked: no incentive, but corruption was rampant. Socialism, like in the Scandinavian countries works only if the citizens are prepared to pay for a very extensive and expensive social net with premium taxes.
Economists and philosophers have pondered that question for millennia but have not come up with a perfect system either. Not to sound repetitive but I still think Switzerland would be an example to strive for.

I am a capitalist who thinks that workers need to have a decent life even if they aren't genius money-makers.

In other words, a solid successful middle class with mobility up and down according to talents.  Minimum wage today does not allow a middle class.

[Baruch]

Both Marxists and Capitalists are opposed to bourgeois values.  Envy and Greed has destroyed the middle class in the US, internally an externally.  Keep up with the Jones family?  Don't do it on credit, you cretins.