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Ok-Librarian4752 t1_j4iw1sx wrote

Great summary of an even better newsletter. I agree with many of these points and also can’t help but point out the small scale that democracy operates in.

When a party is elected to a government, they are concerned about the welfare and wellbeing of profitable citizenry. They are also typically concerned with combatting issues with high media visibility, profitable outcomes, short term fixes, rather than a focus on ethical issues (systemic racism, gender pay gap, the high rates of burnout and workplace incivilities, wealth inequalities) as they are within the system, governments can do little about problems which stem from a politically democratic systemic level.

Most attempts in modern democracies to create fundamental changes in harm reduction or improving systemic issues fail dismally (improving wealth inequalities, gender inequalities, corruption etc) as the problem resides as a systemic level rather than finding a panacea with policies that could be overturned with the next change of government.

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fjaoaoaoao t1_j4lmml5 wrote

I wouldn't agree that the party primarily cares about profitable citzenry, unless you think of profits also as votes and attention.

But otherwise I agree with the spirit of your post. Parties and elections have their good side but they can also encourage focus on public image and more immediately gratifying change. It discourages long-term goals and sustained, ongoing collaboration, unless the public can heavily agree on what those goals are. The problem arises is if the public is manipulated, kept ignorant, or even just having largely different lifestyles (e.g. rural versus urban), agreement on long-term goals can be even harder to come by.

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contractualist OP t1_j4lsdh8 wrote

Thank you so much! The incentives of politicians and the public good can be misaligned, which is why there is no inherent authority to decisions made by the former.

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anon2282 t1_j4jr9ya wrote

>systemic racism, gender pay gap,

Do you have anything from this millennium?

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