Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Why Can't We Trust Our Government?

As I read more and more about Snyder's new policies, the biggest question I keep going back to is this: why can't we trust the government? We put these people into place, then don't give them any credit or any of our trust. Right now this was the best article I could find on the topic, I like the first graph a lot.

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2010/04/80-percent-of-americans-dont-trust-the-government-heres-why/39148/

I'm also interested in what everyone thinks about this. Do you trust the government (at any level)? Why or why not?

7 comments:

  1. Interesting that distrust in government rises with the increase in corporate America...

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  2. Saying "we put them into place then don't give them any trust" definitely identifies that part of the problem lies with the electorate. No one you elect will ever do exactly what you want; voting for them is signing a contract where you agree to let them represent you and by doing so give them some measure of trust to work with. You can't backseat drive every decision.

    That said, Toni is right too that voters are becoming depressingly more aware that "their" politicians are often more beholden to the big businesses that fund them and less to the individual voters. Campaign finance reform would be a massive step towards fixing this.

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  3. I am a hard working American citizen,and I don't trust my government. Their interests are not always our best interests.

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  4. Campaign finance reform would be a great start. The other thing is that a lot of what gov't does is just so remote from our daily lives. Like, I'm a pretty intelligent and engaged person and I barely keep up with the mainstream news, much less keeping track of how my reps voted and what the riders in those bills are. It's a tough problem to fix.

    As far as corruption and corporate influence go, read 'Confessions of an Economic Hitman' Seriously, it's a good read and also one of the most paradigm shifting books I've ever read, it talks about how informal contacts between big business and the government determine America's foreign and domestic policy to the detriment of pretty much everyone else.

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  5. "If this sounds schizophrenic, it's hardly different from the schizophrenia Americans already suffer when we blast the government for deficit spending even as we largely defend entitlements (40% of the budget), defense spending (20%), relief for the unemployed, and the historically low tax rates that make the deficit the deficit"
    Really like these lines and I have to admit that I agree with them.

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  6. I don’t necessarily trust anyone. Everything has its flaws and to be honest we are all looking out for what is in our best interest (even though we try to look out for everyone’s).

    I do think that our government system is better than some of our other options. Let’s face it we are never going to be happy or fully trust any form of government. The only thing we can do is try to make innovations in the system.

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  7. Corporations choose who they want to fund and corporation have such an effect in the society that people tend to choose politicians who are funded by those corporation. When they get elected they serve for corporation not for the people. So its obvious that people don't trust government and this distrust will grow if the corporations grow.

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