Democracy Is in Recession
FEB. 18, 2015
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/18/opinion/thomas-friedman-democracy-is-in-recession.html?comments#permid=14167279
Part of the problem, at least, is the pernicious influence of "market economy". The case is often made that democracies can only exist with "free" market economies, and visa versa, that market economy supports the ideals of democracy.
Especially during the Cold War it was fairly easy to make that case - Western, non-communist countries had greater wealth, seemingly more equally distributed, and had much greater individual freedoms.
However, it is becoming ever more obvious that market economies are extremely powerful tools to concentrate wealth, and thus power, within a tiny minority of the polulation. The supposed "freedoms" of democracy are increasingly misused to facilitate ever more concentration of wealth and power within this small minority.
The US is a prime example for this trend, where the Supreme Court ruled that money = freedom of speech, and thus opened the floodgates for the wealthy few to usurp more and more power through the supposedly egalitarian democratic institutions. And the economic religious dogma of "The Invisible Hand" supposedly ensuring a "optimal" distribution of income, is complete fiction, used primarily to justify the excesses of the rich and powerful - "greed is good".
In China they exceute powerful leaders who misuse their position, private or public, for insane personal gain. In the US the heads of Chase and Bank of America, whose greed and stupidity ruined millions of lives, are given government subsidies to continue their greedy activity.
Especially during the Cold War it was fairly easy to make that case - Western, non-communist countries had greater wealth, seemingly more equally distributed, and had much greater individual freedoms.
However, it is becoming ever more obvious that market economies are extremely powerful tools to concentrate wealth, and thus power, within a tiny minority of the polulation. The supposed "freedoms" of democracy are increasingly misused to facilitate ever more concentration of wealth and power within this small minority.
The US is a prime example for this trend, where the Supreme Court ruled that money = freedom of speech, and thus opened the floodgates for the wealthy few to usurp more and more power through the supposedly egalitarian democratic institutions. And the economic religious dogma of "The Invisible Hand" supposedly ensuring a "optimal" distribution of income, is complete fiction, used primarily to justify the excesses of the rich and powerful - "greed is good".
In China they exceute powerful leaders who misuse their position, private or public, for insane personal gain. In the US the heads of Chase and Bank of America, whose greed and stupidity ruined millions of lives, are given government subsidies to continue their greedy activity.
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