America In Decay

[jpatter666]

Really excellent article (IMO) on the whys and wherefores of the decay of America's political structure. Posting here for comment.

Magisterial essay on the failure of public administration in America. In brief: The American people do not greatly trust their government; so they hamstring its operations with rules and red tape; which leads to poor performance and easy capture; which reinforces public distrust. There is no easy route to reform. The entrenched actors are too powerful. Major change may require an external shock to the whole system

http://thebrowser.com/articles/america-in-decay/

[dcarrigg]

Re: America In Decay

Really excellent article (IMO) on the whys and wherefores of the decay of America's political structure. Posting here for comment.

Magisterial essay on the failure of public administration in America. In brief: The American people do not greatly trust their government; so they hamstring its operations with rules and red tape; which leads to poor performance and easy capture; which reinforces public distrust. There is no easy route to reform. The entrenched actors are too powerful. Major change may require an external shock to the whole system

http://thebrowser.com/articles/america-in-decay/

For whatever reason, that "the browser" site doesn't work for me. But this link did:

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articl...erica-in-decay

One quote that stood out:

This is largely because the United States has returned in certain ways to being a “state of courts and parties,” that is, one in which the courts and the legislature have usurped many of the proper functions of the executive, making the operation of the government as a whole both incoherent and inefficient.

That seems not altogether accurate to me. If anything, I'd say the executive power has expanded in recent years and Fukuyama has it backwards here.

And I don't see the American system as being purely to blame here. The UK's parliamentary democracy didn't stop the rise of FIRE nor the abuses of the financial industry going into the last downturn. If anything, the problems of the West 21st century seem to be problems that encompass the whole of Europe and America, not problems unique to America.

Decay is happening. But it's happening all over the old first world, regardless of which type of government is in charge or how strong the executive is.

I'd say there are better explanatory factors out there.

[don]

Re: America In Decay

If anything, I'd say the executive power has expanded in recent years and Fukuyama has it backwards here.

+1 (and Fukuyama having it backwards is par for his course . . . of history)

[jpatter666]

Re: America In Decay

For whatever reason, that "the browser" site doesn't work for me. But this link did:

http://www.foreignaffairs.com/articl...erica-in-decay

One quote that stood out:



That seems not altogether accurate to me. If anything, I'd say the executive power has expanded in recent years and Fukuyama has it backwards here.

And I don't see the American system as being purely to blame here. The UK's parliamentary democracy didn't stop the rise of FIRE nor the abuses of the financial industry going into the last downturn. If anything, the problems of the West 21st century seem to be problems that encompass the whole of Europe and America, not problems unique to America.

Decay is happening. But it's happening all over the old first world, regardless of which type of government is in charge or how strong the executive is.

I'd say there are better explanatory factors out there.

There is a difference between the Executive Power expanding (usually in bad directions) and the courts/legislature usurping many of its proper functions.

Basically, all groups are sticking their noses where they shouldn't and abdicating the roles they should be following.

Many of your questions do get addressed -- you need to read the whole thing before judging. I didn't agree with all of it, but a fair amount makes sense.

[dcarrigg]

Re: America In Decay

I read the whole thing. I always do. And it's a good read.

But I just don't agree with his premise that unique American institutions are the cause of the broad decay he's identifying. Sure, they are in the case of Citizens United / Lobbying that he brings up. But then he strangely compares things to European parliamentary systems. But it seems like they're falling victim to the same sort of decay anyways, despite not having the same court/lobbying/legislative pivot structure. At least it seems like that to me. I mean, there are plenty of instances of European political paralysis, financial crises, rising inequality, slow growth, corruption, the whole bit. The same broad trends are happening there as well as here, so far as I can tell.

And if that's true, there's something causing the decay besides just the US government institutional structure.

[dcarrigg]

Re: America In Decay

What history? I thought that was over...

[touchring]

Re: America In Decay

I read the whole thing. I always do. And it's a good read.

But I just don't agree with his premise that unique American institutions are the cause of the broad decay he's identifying. Sure, they are in the case of Citizens United / Lobbying that he brings up. But then he strangely compares things to European parliamentary systems. But it seems like they're falling victim to the same sort of decay anyways, despite not having the same court/lobbying/legislative pivot structure. At least it seems like that to me. I mean, there are plenty of instances of European political paralysis, financial crises, rising inequality, slow growth, corruption, the whole bit. The same broad trends are happening there as well as here, so far as I can tell.

And if that's true, there's something causing the decay besides just the US government institutional structure.

My two cents. This is how I see it on the macro level.

Globalization and the rise of the oligarchs that are controlling the Western governments and the over-dependence on monetary policy.

For a long time, natural resources are in abundance, supply is greater than demand, more than enough for Europe and America to finance oversea adventures (e.g. Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan, Ukraine) to entertain the electorate through MSM controlled by Oligarchs. Oil was cheap so American cities and the economy, and to a lesser extent European as well, were built for cheap oil and cars.

Recognizing that securing an exclusive supply of oil is important at a time when global demand is growing, the Allies attacked Iraq twice. This backfired, led to anarchy and a consistently high price of oil. Oligarchs and interest groups that benefited from high oil price grew rich and contributed to the instability (fire) by financing (fueling) militant groups, leading to a vicious cycle. The high price of oil is lucrative for Oligarchs as a lot of money can be made from securing (selling weapons), transporting (security services), drilling and selling oil.

On the other hand, emerging economies that developed while the price of oil rose sharply are spending trillions of dollars on public transportation (high speed rail, subways, public buses) and built densely populated cities to reduce dependency on oil. The efficiency achieved allowed economies to grow and total oil consumption continued to increase even while the unit price of oil rose. All the while, the same Oligarchs are making plenty of money from the new consumer markets in the emerging economies.

http://www.globalrailnews.com/2013/0...nfrastructure/

In the meantime, America is innovating to overcome the high cost of oil, e.g. the Cloud, telecommuting, horizontal drilling. But unlike transportation infrastructure and city design, knowledge-based innovations can be easily copied by other countries, so whatever cost savings achieved initially will soon be eroded away by further increase in consumption by emerging economies.

For example, the consumer ecommerce market in China is now more developed than the US.

http://focustaiwan.tw/news/acs/201407230015.aspx

China surpassed the United States to become the world's largest online market in 2013, ANZ said in a research note. The value of online shopping in China totaled US$298 billion last year, surpassing US$263 billion in the U.S., it added.

The ratio of online shopping to total retail sales in China also jumped from 0.2 percent in 2005 to 7.8 percent in 2013, higher than the U.S.' 5.8 percent during the same period, according to ANZ.

[Woodsman]

Re: America In Decay

[don]

Re: America In Decay

No need to start the Bubble Machine
It's been running for years . . . .

[vinoveri]

Re: America In Decay

And if that's true, there's something causing the decay besides just the US government institutional structure.

Like perhaps a failure for the past 50+ years to teach the next generation about how to live, you know, like virtue, common sense philosophy, the connection between the common good and the individual good, personal responsibility in the pursuit of happiness (oh and maybe the denigration of religion and faith in the eternal). Just thinkin here but when you get right down to it, concepts like social darwinsim, discredited Freudian psychology and extreme existential philosophy, the atheism of Nietsche and Satre, the "will to power" and other hogwash which have so invaded and been readily embraced by our intellectual culture might just might have something to do with with (/sarc).

[Thailandnotes]

Re: America In Decay

Matt Groening explains it all on the BBC, or the last 50 years at least

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iX4L1DGtdKU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbrLnoXdaLg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnVy8rWr5hI

[Raz]

Re: America In Decay

Like perhaps a failure for the past 50+ years to teach the next generation about how to live, you know, like virtue, common sense philosophy, the connection between the common good and the individual good, personal responsibility in the pursuit of happiness (oh and maybe the denigration of religion and faith in the eternal). Just thinkin here but when you get right down to it, concepts like social darwinsim, discredited Freudian psychology and extreme existential philosophy, the atheism of Nietsche and Satre, the "will to power" and other hogwash which have so invaded and been readily embraced by our intellectual culture might just might have something to do with with it. (/sarc).

+1.

[Woodsman]

Re: America In Decay

Like perhaps a failure for the past 50+ years to teach the next generation about how to live...

Personally, I find it hilarious that anyone in our generation has the stones to offer advice to the x'ers and the millennials considering how awful we screwed the pooch and, as a consequence, them.

[jpatter666]

Re: America In Decay

Personally, I find it hilarious that anyone in our generation has the stones to offer advice to the x'ers and the millennials considering how awful we screwed the pooch and, as a consequence, them.

Oh, I don't know -- as one of the very first X'ers I can appreciate not being blown up in nuclear fire, the environment is certainly cleaner now than it was. I'm more hopeful on race relations looking at the current generation (that's the only way I see it getting better -- as the older race-view-tainted generations die off). The internet binds diverse people together while allowing others to stew in a sink of poisonous views they might not have otherwise had access to, but on the whole, I see the Net as a positive. Medical advances are beyond what most people ever imagined.

I look back to the 70s and 80s and a *lot* has changed. More often than not for the better.

[Woodsman]

Re: America In Decay

I look back to the 70s and 80s and a *lot* has changed. More often than not for the better.

Always glad to meet happy customers . You know that would make a good thread for us geezers, especially - what's worse vs. what's better now versus the 70s & 80s.