Why Democracy Has Lost Its Value

Political movements encourage people to vote. “Vote! Get out and vote!” they shout. The same edicts are repeated over and over as if democracy itself depends on it. Yet, nothing seems to change.  Or, to the surprise of the voters, even if their candidates win, the world’s problems remain in place with no reasonable solutions on the table or even up for discussion.

Take the most radical of the current political lot, Donald Trump and Boris Johnson.  

Donald Trump is the billionaire who cares about the common man, even the coal miner.  The economy has continued to grow under Trump and many would even say he has managed to keep the economy from going into a recession.  But despite Donald Trump’s strong handed approach to politics and international relations, the life of American’s has not changed.  The middle class is still shrinking, millions of people need two jobs to make ends meet, homelessness is getting worse and life for most people in America is a struggle where food insecurity is a persistent problem.  

Or, how about Brexit and Boris Johnson.  In England the voters have definitely been heard and now Brexit will finally happen.  The common man, the blue collar worker, frustrated with years of poor pay, have finally said that enough is enough.  Unfortunately, the European Union is the scapegoat and Brexit is not a solution to anything beneficial to England.  Yes, England will no longer have to answer to bureaucrats from the European Union but that was never really what was keeping the blue collar workers from a decent life.  

Governments around the world are inept — democratic or not. The people in democracies are told they are lucky compared to other types of governments. They are told and believe that if only the politicians could get along, then the world would be so much better, and it’s only one election away. 

The ineptness can be seen on many fronts. From the inability to solve poverty or do something about climate change, to the increasing reports of terrorism, suicides, and overdoses, or to provide upward mobility for the lower classes and to keep the middle class growing — it’s clear that governments of all types are unable to foster real change. 

So don’t believe the hype! 

Democracy lost its value a long time ago. In fact, it may have really never stood a chance, and I’m going to tell you why.

Why Democracy Has Lost Its Value

Before we dive deeper into this topic, let’s make one thing perfectly clear. This article is not a promotion for communism, monarchies, dictators, or the mafia-style of the Russian oligarchs. 

Even China, the new superpower of the world, is flawed to the core. They came into power by manipulating their huge population into slavery via media and information control management while putting the communist party above all else.

Even in socialist countries like Denmark, where people are the happiest in the world, life is so constrained that to succeed is considered to be merely average. The socialist democracy limits everyone to an average life by taking care of almost everyone. The average life of a Dane is better than the average life in most other countries, including America, but it is still suffocatingly limited. 

So, what is it about governments that makes them powerless and unable to make change.  Governments are borrowing unprecedented amounts of money in order to fund their expenditures and yet their economies are barely growing, life is barely getting better and in fact life is getting worse for many, people are getting sick from global lifestyle diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cancer and more.  It is like governments are somehow being constrained by an invisible force or at least a force that the world is blind to.  

Every single person on earth has free will, and their decisions and actions are theirs to control. Yet, collectively, humanity has become powerless and incapable of preserving the planet for future generations. It’s evident that the problem isn’t due to the inability of people to agree and get things done.  Companies and groups of people do incredible things every day. It is specifically the governments of countries and unions of countries that are stuck in a rut. It should be possible for countries to drive towards a goal just like people, organizations and businesses do. But instead we get politicians making promises like their hands are tied, they can raise and lower taxes, they can fight illegal immigration or stop corruption but you will not hear them talk about ending poverty, stopping global warming or making plans for a more idealic future.  If they do make grandiose promises then they are empty because governments are in fact powerless to change anything that will significantly impact the lives of the average citizen.  

Life remains the same, simply because governments of all types do not have the ability to effect change.

People die of poverty and are struggling to make ends meet. In retaliation, they are acting out in strange ways with mass shootings and terrorist attacks. Some have even lost all hope and are overdosing or committing suicide. 

Yet, even as people struggle just to get by, the future isn’t shaping up to be any better, in other words people are not suffering today so that the world can be better tomorrow.  As things are evolving, the future is actually looking worse and worse, global warming, war, and mounting debt of all types, the next generation is going to be left with a big mess to deal with.  

Why Government Performance Shouldn’t Be Based on GDP

Part of the issue is that government performance is based on economic output, GDP (Gross Domestic Product). “If a country makes more products than last year, then it must be doing better,” they say. 

This is absolutely ridiculous, and it would be better if it were because a lobby thought it benefited them because at least then it wouldn’t be so embarrassing for the intelligent species to be using this indicator to measure the health of entire nations. 

Unfortunately, this is not the case. It is because we historically don’t know any better. It sort of makes sense that the more products are made and purchased, the better the economy should be. But if you dig into what is being made, you’ll arrive at a completely different conclusion. 

How do I know that GDP is an absolutely ridiculous measure of a country’s well being? Because it says nothing about what is being produced. For example, let’s look at the American economy. 

“Almost 1 out of every 5 dollars is spent on medical care in the US.” 

The fact that this is the case is disheartening to say the least. Not because it might be too expensive, but because so many people are getting sick. Current trends indicate that even more money will be spent next year on medical care. 

This will cause the GDP to grow because more people are getting sick, which, in turn, is supposed to indicate that the economy is getting stronger.  Think about that, more people are going to get sick, which means a larger GDP and that is supposed to mean the country is growing and doing better except of course more people are sick.  

Do you see now why it’s so ridiculous to measure a country’s well being by it’s GDP? Imagine a car used 1 out of every 5 pistons in the engine to pump the fuel and not propel the car forward — it would be too inefficient. Unfortunately, it doesn’t stop there, the car of the American economy is barely moving.

The American government spends 1 out of every 5 dollars, and most of that goes towards social programs. This means the second piston in our imaginary car is also being utilized to not help turn the wheels forward. This car is already a dud, and I’m not even finished yet. 

“Federal program spending is expected to rise from 19.0% of GDP in 2019 to 20.1% in 2029 due to baby boomers retiring, and the rising per-person costs of healthcare.”

Another 1 out of 5 dollars in the American economy is spent on banking and education. That might seem ok at first, but now your car has 3 out of 5 pistons not helping the wheels turn. 

Are you starting to see the big picture? Governments are hopelessly inept because the people of the entire planet aren’t doing anything to help move the car of humanity forward.

How Our Banking System Makes It Worse

What is causing this insanity? The banking system. 

A country can have any type of government its people  like, but the homogenous global banking system determines a country’s economy and the work that gets done there. Banks have no interest in a sustainable future, suicides, or poverty. 

Banks are in the business of selling financial products like loans. 

Even if a banks’ owners were benevolent, the rules of the global banking system doesn’t allow any individual bank to do something different. This (now old) new global order was established at Bretton Woods in 1944, which I wrote about here. 

So, that is why democracy has lost its value. People are voting for a government who abdicated their power to a global banking system a long time ago.  Therefore no matter who wins an election, the power to change anything was actually not on the ballet, no matter what the ideology because no current political ideology considers the influence of the homogenous global banking system. So, perhaps the people who don’t vote are smart enough to have realized this or at least they must be apathetic about it for good reason. 

The Solution: Optimizing America

So, is it really possible to get an entire nation of people to work towards a sustainable future without hurting GDP *eye roll* even the entire world? Yes, of course, it is. All that is needed is an economic system that is not driven by debt and the banking system — see my essay on Bankism. 

In my free book, Optimizing America, I talk about the solutions to the issues raised in this article.

If you have already read Optimizing America, make sure to snag your free copy of the new prequel — Showdown in the Economy of Good and Evil — that’s available now on Amazon.

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Tune in or sign up to read my next blog post about the health crises. I’ll be explaining why the problem is not the cost of healthcare or insurance companies. The problem is the economic system that drives us all towards sickness instead of health.

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