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noname223

Angelic
Aug 18, 2020
4,268
I am pretty thankful to live in a democracy. The German one is compared with most other governmental systems very advanced. I am not sure whether I am fully in favor of direct democracy elements like in the Swiss system.

Though not all democracies work all that good at the same level. I find the USA such a fascinating country. But their democracy is pretty damaged. The polarization is way too severe. If the two parties hate each other that much that might lead to a shut down or constitutional crisis eventually. In the US the money and lobby interests are too strong. The strong emphasis on free speech is in some instances harmful. For example as we see that with fake news let's say Tucker Carlson or Alex Jones. I think a multiparty system, campaign finance reforms and ranked choice voting could help a lot. But it is extremely hard to reach systemic reforms because the old elites benefit from them.

I am a leftwinger and I think poverty will kill me. However I don't think capitalism itself is the problem. It is hard to translate but in my opinion capitalism has to be fenced/enclosed the right way. I am not sure how left I should be on economics. I read some interesting pieces how FDR dealt with epochal crisis and how high the taxes for the rich was to that time. On the other hand I think this might be naive. We are an international system. And the globalisation has made it so much easier to transfer huge amounts of money within minutes. Tax evasion is already a huge issue. Sometimes it is even legal. Just a dream scenario all western industrial countries agree on a financial transaction tax but there will always be loopholes and countries which try to profit of going against the reforms. Like Ireland did and benefited a lot of that. Especially a financial transaction tax would be extremely amazing. It would be also a great tool also against speculations. But the lobbies are too powerful and everyone is scared that important countries dissent.

I think democracy is a great concept. I am very sceptical when I hear left or rightwinger express discontent against the system. There was a study in Germany recently. Young people are less convinced of democracy than older generations. Here is what i think is the reason for that. During covid the young generation had to suffer for the societal benefit. The older generation are a bigger amount of people and vote more often. This is why the politicians act more in favor of them and neglect the young people. I think many young people are annoyed by the inertness of democratic changes. They say for such a monumental change like the climate catastrophe we need drastic actions immediately. They want to skip the democratic process. In some instances protest is an absolute justifed mean. Personally I am not that scared about the climate crisis. And the reason is probably selfish. I think I might be dead when the worst is coming. The society treated me like dirt so why should I worry about their demise. It is not good to think like that due to the fact the most vulnerable people will suffer the most. On the other hand I am glad the elite is also anxious about it. So money can't buy you anything. Despite some libertarians dream of a life on another planet. Good luck with that!

On a scale I would give democracy as a concept a 10/10. However the deomcracies that exist are not perfect. They have flaws. And for example it is not law of nature that they are superior for example in economical instances but I think it is clear that democracy is the best protection against totalitarianism, genocides, maybe wars (democracies usually don't fight each other)
They foster more than other systems civic rights (not perfect for sure), human rights (also flawed for example Assange's case), a constitutional state, a fair and balanced justice system ( on average compared to other systems like autocracies).
 
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DarkMilk

DarkMilk

Member
May 16, 2023
19
How can you say that when all the democratic countries have the highest suicide rates and mental illness rates in the world, whereas illiberal societies like China are the opposite? The few exceptions I can think of are Russia and the former com-bloc countries.
 
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noname223

Angelic
Aug 18, 2020
4,268
The highest suicide rates are in the following countries: Lesotho, Guyana, Eswatini, the Federated States of Micronesia, Lithuania, Suriname, Russia, South Africa, Ukraine, Lesotho, Guyana, Eswatini, Lithuania, Slovenia, Japan, and the US.

I don't think democracy is related to higher suicide rates. In Japan it is the insane performance pressure and in the US the way too liberal gun laws that let the numbers explode.

I think you drew a wrong conclusion on mental illness. Democracies usually have a better health care system than non-democracies (on average). This is why more people receive a diagnosis. Just because there barely are any psychiatrists in Africa this does not mean mental illness was not so widespread there. On the hand in industrial countries the working conditions can lead to mental illness. But this is unrelated to democracy.
 
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