America- dumbocracy

[wilt the stilt]

My wife's cousin has a number of friends in Europe. They call America dumbocracy. What is striking is how we in this country seem to lack any critical objective thinking skills or are we just plain selfish.
I guess the issue that to me most illustrates our dumbocracy is healthcare. We bury our head in the sand because we like to say we use our own system(private insurance) versus the rest of the world. We spend 6-7% more that the rest of the world yet we benefit the least.
We are competing in a global marketplace and yet we are using an outdated system that imposes a cost structure that is unsustainable for business. How can we in the long run compete?

Leadership on both sides should actually step up and deal with this rationally. I fear that our idiocy will prevail. This goes along with the "American exceptionalism" theory. Like I said dumbocracy

[handmade34]

1. no words for the obvious ignorance

that a lot of the American people display... We can be so much better than this :patriot:

[Silent3]

2. I get so sick of criticisms like "Democrats didn't have a clear message"...

...and crap like that, criticisms that take responsibility away from voters getting a clue about what's actually happening in their country and making an effort to understand policies more complex than a bumper sticker.

I am angry with Democrats for many of the mistakes they've made over the past couple of years, but I'm angrier with the American public for not being smart enough to see through the sham of the game the Republicans have been playing, not being smart enough to realize that just because the economy is bad Republican policies, which caused the collapse in the first place, will only make it worse.

[seabeyond]

3. tell your friends in europe they are doing a pretty piss poor job too.... fuck them. nt

[SlimJimmy]

4. Agreed. When they get their house in order, they can

bitch about ours.

[wilt the stilt]

5. Like Germany

second biggest exporter in the world and I bet they pay a pretty good wage. What is missed here is how American business has made really dumb moves and yet they take none of the blame and the American worker takes all the blame. Who designed American manufacturing(such as cars) and electronic devices . There are two components at work here. Car manufacturers designed poorly conceived cars both in design and production leading to poor quality. Did the worker design the car?
Secondly, Tax policy for rewarding outsourcing and the quarterly report deeming growth as the only measure of a company. This leads to no real planning except in the short run ad on top of that healthare costs making manufacturing expensive.

These are factors that have made us a third world country.

[seabeyond]

8. yes.... good for you, you picked out the one country of isolationism

and rw governing that is doing fiscally ok. you said you "european" friends. that is more than just one country

[wilt the stilt]

9. not my friends but my wife's

so I don't know where they are from

[snot]

6. I don't believe Americans are stupid;

but they're misinformed and even brainwashed.

Dems have lost control of most messaging, and without that, they can't even control the agenda, even with majorities.

We NEED

1. Election reform (both electronic voting and campaign finance, including corporate money);

2. Media reform (restore restrictions on consolidated ownership and the Fairness Doctrine); and

3. Restoring public education.

Without progress on those 3 crucial issues, no other progress is secure or even possible.

[wilt the stilt]

10. misinformed is not an excuse

maybe I read encyclopedias as a child so I try to get the facts.
Here is the premise that I would like to make to any business school graduate( I was a business major). We had a final course called Business policy. If we hid the name of "healthcare" and used a euphemism called manufacturing overhead in a case study and that that cost was 7% higher than all the other manufacturers in the world. I guarantee you not a single final paper would come back with that process being kept.

[snot]

11. No; but we need solutions . . .

. . . rather than judgment. In fact, I would argue that passing judgment on people often makes it harder to communicate with them effectively so as to change their minds.

[JCMach1]

7. Never midunderestimate the idiocy of the American Electorate

[CommonSensePLZ]

12. Probably won't happen

Consider credit cards, the people who made them knew that they were weapons of debt made to deceive users, they put them out there on purpose. The people who understand how aspects of the economy are comparable to a pyramid scheme, like inflation for example, are the same ones who've already figured out how they can manipulate it for their own gain, like the bankers who were betting against the economy before the recession.

I'm not saying it's hopeless, just that right now I don't think that world is likely.