This isn't a call for a political solution, BTW. This problem can develop in a Communist nation (cf. Chernobyl) just as easily as it can happen in a capitalist nation. The real issue is lack of involvement. Lack of discourse. Lack of contemplation and consideration.
True enough. Fixing these problems demands that economic priorities favor the needs of the citizens over the needs of the rulers. Communism means never having to say you're sorry, but so does unfettered capitalism, and so at least part of the solution is political and economic.
A lot of infrastructure-related problems in the big cities are caused by the massive collapse of tax revenues due to the "White flight" phenomenon that began in the '60s and continues today. Which certainly ties into your observations, since the belief that one can take one's kids and "escape" to an all-white secure economic and social paradise while letting the economic hubs of commerce and industry collapse is short-sighted selfishness at best, and irrational psychosis at worst.
The "conservatives" in government and media have established the catchphrase "you can't solve a problem by throwing money at it" so deeply into the average Americans' psyches that they actually believe it. On the contrary, when it comes to fixing bridges, repairing sewers, making buildings more earthquake resistant, reinforcing levees, hiring qualified teachers, etc., the correct solution is to throw money at it! Granted, you need qualified contractors, transparency, and so on, but those too cost money. And there's certainly no lack of $$$ for war-waging, corporate bailouts, etc., so the "we can't afford it" argument is bogus on its face.
Perhaps we should abandon the entire idea of the nation-state, and go to eking out survival via subsistence farming and a barter economy between tiny isolated anarchist communes (which is the logical outcome of the entire Earth First!/Small is Beautiful/Inconvenient Truth movement). But I'm not so sure. To advocate that is to admit that the problems that exist are beyond repair and totally unworkable or unrepairable, and I suspect that's exactly the despairing view that certain classes of oligarchs would like the rest of us to accept as gospel. Consider that the Ford and Carnegie Foundations created and financed the nascent "ecology movement" in the first place, and one has to ask "cui bono?" What I do know is that either way, it's gonna take some sort of Stupidity Vaccine (RAW's term) to get us out of the messes we've made for ourselves (or that we've allowed to be made for us while we were watching Paris Hilton, etc.).
no subject
This isn't a call for a political solution, BTW. This problem can develop in a Communist nation (cf. Chernobyl) just as easily as it can happen in a capitalist nation. The real issue is lack of involvement. Lack of discourse. Lack of contemplation and consideration.
True enough. Fixing these problems demands that economic priorities favor the needs of the citizens over the needs of the rulers. Communism means never having to say you're sorry, but so does unfettered capitalism, and so at least part of the solution is political and economic.
A lot of infrastructure-related problems in the big cities are caused by the massive collapse of tax revenues due to the "White flight" phenomenon that began in the '60s and continues today. Which certainly ties into your observations, since the belief that one can take one's kids and "escape" to an all-white secure economic and social paradise while letting the economic hubs of commerce and industry collapse is short-sighted selfishness at best, and irrational psychosis at worst.
The "conservatives" in government and media have established the catchphrase "you can't solve a problem by throwing money at it" so deeply into the average Americans' psyches that they actually believe it. On the contrary, when it comes to fixing bridges, repairing sewers, making buildings more earthquake resistant, reinforcing levees, hiring qualified teachers, etc., the correct solution is to throw money at it! Granted, you need qualified contractors, transparency, and so on, but those too cost money. And there's certainly no lack of $$$ for war-waging, corporate bailouts, etc., so the "we can't afford it" argument is bogus on its face.
Perhaps we should abandon the entire idea of the nation-state, and go to eking out survival via subsistence farming and a barter economy between tiny isolated anarchist communes (which is the logical outcome of the entire Earth First!/Small is Beautiful/Inconvenient Truth movement). But I'm not so sure. To advocate that is to admit that the problems that exist are beyond repair and totally unworkable or unrepairable, and I suspect that's exactly the despairing view that certain classes of oligarchs would like the rest of us to accept as gospel. Consider that the Ford and Carnegie Foundations created and financed the nascent "ecology movement" in the first place, and one has to ask "cui bono?" What I do know is that either way, it's gonna take some sort of Stupidity Vaccine (RAW's term) to get us out of the messes we've made for ourselves (or that we've allowed to be made for us while we were watching Paris Hilton, etc.).