05-30-2016, 02:07 PM
(This post was last modified: 05-30-2016, 02:11 PM by Eric the Green.)
(05-30-2016, 01:05 PM)Cynic Hero Wrote: Regarding Pbrower2a's statements about democracies putting the people first, this is not true to my observation. Our government at the beltway does not put people first but, but money first, the worst possible combination. Strong governments put power first because increasing the amount of power a nation has increases that nation's security, thus allowing prosperity to potentially develop among the people.
The French didn't think so in the 1780s. The Russians and Chinese didn't think so in the early 20th century. The Arabs don't think so in the era of the Arab Spring.
What "strong governments" of your type allow is prosperity among the elites. Democracy allows prosperity to grow among the people. Increasing democracy allowed the British to prosper, as well as the Americans, the Japanese, the South Koreans, the Taiwanese, the French, the Italians, etc. The German autocracies of modern times boosted the aristocratic junker class. Democracy since the fall of the last such autocracy in 1945 has boosted German prosperity among the people. As democracy has come to Eastern Europe, prosperity is growing there too.
Arguably, the East-Asian Communist regimes have held onto power while allowing some greater freedoms. China and Vietnam don't have democracy, but they have ostensibly "peoples' " governments. Meanwhile, the purest communist autocracy in that region has made its nation desperately poor.