Thursday, September 23, 2010
Too Much Freedom Will Kill You
We often presume that democracy is the final form of government. The ideal system is a group of people representing others to govern and making laws. And choosing our representatives and leaders are undertaken regularly by elections in certain time. We praise this as democracy, the ultimate state system.
The democracy value might bring the prosperity to the western countries. Given these facts, it is reasonable that we attribute people's well-being to democracy. However, can we challenge this long-standing value?
Yes, at present we can, because another fact appears!
Sometimes the cruel dictators and the crazy lawmakers in democratic countries differ only in a thin line. All of them make an obstruction to attain well-governed country. Both of them wield their power to reach their self-interest and although it diverts the country from the common goal.
America rife with preaches on freedom and democracy has been experiencing the downward of people's freedom. They lost clarity of problems encountered and they cannot make a deal to solve them.
They acknowledge they have a huge deficit in their budget. Following the common sense, the policy would be austerity or seeking another source of funds. And American government as the representative of the people has chosen to give its economy a stimulus. However, we see something stupid from Republicans as one of two major parties, they struggle to turn down increasing tax for the riches, the main supporters of Republic Party. Even they try to frighten the middle-class American to impose more tax.
To plug the deficit, the rich people should sacrifice themselves for the country. The lawmakers should not represent them to avoid this responsibility.
In a similar vein, lawmakers do too little and too slow in addressing climate change. America is one of a few countries neglecting the seriousness of the climate problem. The policy makers are not only wasting time by all denials, but they are wasting opportunities to create clean-tech jobs as well.
Thomas Friedman expressed his resentment on this issue. He points out that America lags behind China in implementing clean-tech that creating jobs as a result of politics. He said Americans turn climate change to be a four-letter word, J-O-K-E, whereas the Chinese turn it to another four-letter one, J-O-B-S. Even the American innovators create jobs for other countries due to lack of law to support clean technology. "Aren't Americans clever when Americans provide jobs for other countries whereas Americans really need them?" Friedman asked.
Not to mention that China has managed its stimulus package adeptly and successfully to face the global crisis while America is still paralyzed with jobless which might be caused by prolonged political debates on how to manage crisis. Reversely, the Chinese leaders who have no oppositions can do anything to contain the crisis effectively and continue growing faster and faster.
Sometimes politics turn out to be just a game of few people. They play the important issues without putting it in place of people's interest. Somettimes democracy lead us to forget the essence of politics which is to deliver prosperity for most of people. And compelling facts show that non-democratic China is doing better than democratic America.
Is Beijing Consensus better than Washington Consensus to prosper? Will too much freedom kill you?
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