China tells America to knock it off with the infighting

[mykcob4]

Maybe we should just appoint congresspeople at random from the welfare rolls.  At least those people know the meaning of a dollar.

Politics should be a service to your country.  Not a gravy train.

Ancient Greeks had the right idea.  Government was populated by drawing lots from the people that were allowed a vote.

"Politics should be a service to your country.  Not a gravy train."
This is the same old thing that repukes use to say in the 70s.
The fact is that characterizing the government as a "gravy train" is so far from the truth, it isn't even funny. Unless you are talking about the corproate charity that the government hands out to giant corrupt corporations.
As far as the Greeks go, it is impractical to expect every voter to vote on every issue. That's why we have a representative democracy. If we are small as a city state like ancient Athens, it might be possible. BTW Greece was not a nation at the time. It was a loose confederation of city states.

[AllPurposeAtheist]

Consider the average voter in the US doesn't bother to even pay attention to the shitty news we do get much less bother to dig into real issues a direct vote on issues would destroy any vestige of a democracy. You think bumper sticker politics is bad now leave serious economic issues up to popular vote and we'd be uber screwed..

[Atheon]

Easy for China to say. They only have one party.

[Hijiri Byakuren]

Easy for China to say. They only have one party.

China: And for good reason!

[AllPurposeAtheist]

The tea party is cutting its own throat. It's a good time to be alive.

[zarus tathra]

China doesn't care about the debt, not really. It's just another investment to them. They've been selling their bonds by the hundreds of billions ever year since this thing started.

[SilentFutility]

Consider the average voter in the US doesn't bother to even pay attention to the shitty news we do get much less bother to dig into real issues a direct vote on issues would destroy any vestige of a democracy. You think bumper sticker politics is bad now leave serious economic issues up to popular vote and we'd be uber screwed..

However, after the Great Recession which started in 2007, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%.

Source

Other than being a seriously large economy, in terms of how well it functions the US economy really isn't doing that great when measured in terms of the wealth of the average individual. It really is sad how much the top few % horde all of the wealth whilst people are denied basic things like health care.

In today's world nobody should be denied access to healthcare. I'd really like to see it introduced in the US in my lifetime.

[Colanth]

However, after the Great Recession which started in 2007, the share of total wealth owned by the top 1% of the population grew from 34.6% to 37.1%, and that owned by the top 20% of Americans grew from 85% to 87.7%.

Source

Other than being a seriously large economy, in terms of how well it functions the US economy really isn't doing that great when measured in terms of the wealth of the average individual.

If you follow the percentages of wealth, you'll find that before each large recession or depression, the percentage of wealth rose among a smaller percentage of people.  The more the top few percent hold more of the money supply, the less money there is to drive the engine of capitalism, so we get a crash.  The only way to keep the economy running in a capitalistic system is to make sure that the spending class always has enough money to keep driving the engine.

The Bible is right about one thing - if you starve the kine that grind your grain, you're going to be making bread with unground kernels, not flour.  (Boehner OTOH doesan't care what happens to the economy, as long as he was Speaker when the country ended.  And if he capitulates now, he's going to lose his title boo hoo.)