• NEW! LOWEST RATES EVER -- SUPPORT THE SHOW AND ENJOY THE VERY BEST PREMIUM PARACAST EXPERIENCE! Welcome to The Paracast+, eight years young! For a low subscription fee, you can download the ad-free version of The Paracast and the exclusive, member-only, After The Paracast bonus podcast, featuring color commentary, exclusive interviews, the continuation of interviews that began on the main episode of The Paracast. We also offer lifetime memberships! Flash! Take advantage of our lowest rates ever! Act now! It's easier than ever to susbcribe! You can sign up right here!

    Subscribe to The Paracast Newsletter!

Does democracy exist?

Forums New posts
Goggs Mackay

Goggs Mackay

Administrator
Staff member
Something that makes me think democracy is an illusion is the following.

Take the population of the UK or US or anywhere in the 'West'. What percent of that population was at all happy with the Bank bailouts? I'd wager it is miniscule.

So if the vast majority of people in any country did not want these bailouts why did they go ahead? Bonuses for Bankers ditto.

I'm willing to accept there may be factors I've not considered but I've yet to meet someone who had defended all this financial shenanigans.
 
Wow I agree with Pixel. Democracy is simply mob rule. The majority wins. What happens when the majority are a bunch of idiots? Or worse, bible thumpers? No thanks.
 
2 good posts guys.
I agree that there is little to suggest democracy is the be-all and end-all but the point I am making is that we are told we have a say in things but something like all this financial crap comes along and then the illusion we have any say is shattered.
 
I agree, from what I've read about it, most of our representatives didn't have much say in the matter either. Supposedly, marshal law was threatened and they were given no time to read the bill. Just goes to show exactly who is in charge of this country, it's not the president or our elected representatives that's for sure.
 
Democracy is two wolves and a sheep deciding what's for dinner. Not such a good system in the big picture. The US is a republic, or is suppose to be. Everything is turned upside down now though so we need to tip it back to right side up standing for what is good for the masses and not a select few.
 
democracy is great. and with the new electronic polling machines its even better. i cant wait for the iphone electo-ap. that way i can elect and do my banking at the same time whilst downloading tunes and playing angry birds.
 
I was going to reply with ' ow do you know she's a witch? But it would be a shallow effort now.
 
goggsmackay said:
Something that makes me think democracy is an illusion is the following.

Take the population of the UK or US or anywhere in the 'West'. What percent of that population was at all happy with the Bank bailouts? I'd wager it is miniscule.

So if the vast majority of people in any country did not want these bailouts why did they go ahead? Bonuses for Bankers ditto.

I'm willing to accept there may be factors I've not considered but I've yet to meet someone who had defended all this financial shenanigans.
Click to expand...

I'll have a crack at it and play devils advocado

Its true the vast majority found the bailouts unpalatable, But they also find being pulled over for speeding and fined hard earned money a pain too.
"Revenue raising" is the usual cry.
So why in a democracy, where no one wants to be fined for being 5 over the limit does it happen anyway ?

Because its the lessor of two evils

The alternative is to let people drive as fast as they want, and redeploy the highway patrol to knock on doors and inform you your wife and children were taken out by some clown doing 120 in a residential street.

Thats the underlying principle behind the "to big to fail" rationale

If the big banks had been allowed to fail, it would have wiped out the depositors too.
Life savings ? gone
Retirement fund ? gone
As one bank failed the population would have sparked a "run" on banks withdrawing their individual piles from every bank just to be safe.
This would have caused a credit freeze since you cant lend what you dont have.

Dont get me wrong, i find the bailouts offensive, but at the end of the day its the lessor evil to take ten bucks out of the pocket of everyone, so that those who would have lost everything, savings pensions etc etc could remain solvent.

But heads should have rolled as well, the bonus's should never have happened, the bailout was to protect the mum and dad depositors, not pay obscene bonus's to the very clowns that created the mess.

As for democracy itself, well some of my favourite phrases are "it doesnt matter who you vote for, the govt always gets in" and "there is no such thing as freedom, but the lucky can chose their chains"
 
This may be too simplistic of a statement, or even inaccurate, but I think any "ism" or "ocracy" is going to flounder at times when it gets too bloated and filled with too many competing interests. It gets too "busy" I was kinda trying to get a grasp on this when I started following up on some articles I was reading on tribalism and that led towards what makes an ideal sized community/society and its components
 
The US is supposed to be a republic. You know, the"rule of law."
The democracy part is that we choose our leaders in open elections.
Basically it's all gone down the tubes. The Constitution is openly ignored, deliberately misinterpreted and pretty much made irrelevant by our president, our elected officials, activist judges, the supreme court and an army of unelected appointees who are given the power to control our lives with regulations that are given the weight of law.
The constitutional republic was a good idea. To bad it was so short-lived.
 
Back
Top