For the first time since 1946, the total debt of the United States ($39.5 trillion) is greater than our GDP ($32-ish trillion). The interest on this debt is currently about $1 trillion per year, which is more than we spend on defense. This level of debt won’t create an explosion, but more of a slow burn. To service this debt, yields on bonds will go up, which means borrowing goes up, which means inflation stays high, which means your cost of living stays high. Basically: the United States is in financial straights which means most families here are going to be in financial straights.
This problem IS NOT FIXABLE without taxation reform. You can’t pay this down through economic growth. We have been fiscally irresponsible for decades now, slashing corporate and personal income taxes with nothing to show for it other than an accumulation of wealth at the top. The London School of Economics has looked at the long and ugly history of trickle-down nonsense and shown that it doesn’t do anything but make the wealthy wealthier. It’s no longer debatable. It’s been tested. It does nothing for the economy except transfer wealth. People keep voting for politicians who sell this lie, against their own interests.
Reforming tax structures is almost impossible with the current capture of politics by wealthy interests. It’s made worse by the other unfixable problem the United States has going right now, and that’s rule by a rural minority. The Dakotas having as many senators as California and New York is a busted system. Period. Defending this system is like walking around quacking like a duck. That’s what people sound like. Government is meant to service PEOPLE, not land. And the idea that Nebraska and North Dakota need equal representation in anything takes you right out of any serious conversation. You sound like a squawking duck. Most Americans live where most Americans live. “Middle America” is the suburbs of a major city. 80% of Americans live in or around a large city. EIGHTY PERCENT. Our system of government is set up to give as much power as possible to the other 20%. That system is broken and unfixable.
This is the death spiral for the United States. A model of capitalism and democracy, it is currently neither. The economic model has been destroyed by a rush for riches rather than a healthy, evenly distributed workforce who all benefit from participation in the economy. Where a steady job could support and family and afford a home, that is no longer true for most. The appeal of having a family is suffering as a result. Numerous studies show economic uncertainty as a primary reason people are delaying getting married and having kids. The death spiral I’m describing here is both figurative and literal.
Most societal problem have a single cause: the CURRENT SYSTEM makes sense to us because we live in it while a BETTER SYSTEM seems unreasonable and impossible. Here’s an example from the world of healthcare:
Imagine a for-profit system where 95% of net income is spent on stock buybacks and dividends, rather on improving or reducing the cost of care. This same system has created about 50 BILLIONAIRES from the healthcare industry, while regular families go bankrupt for accidents out of their control. All measures of health are below average (life expectancy, infant mortality), which costs are way above average. And it can take months to find a doctor to see you, unless you pay out of pocket for concierge care or wade through overstressed emergency rooms. Oh, and the hospital near you probably closed because of lack of returns.
Going FROM this to a system used by every other developed nation, where coverage is guaranteed and costs are reduced by removing profit motives from the system feel outrageous. But if you were already in a system where you payed overall less money (your taxes would be higher, but you wouldn’t have monthly healthcare premiums), to a system where you paid more and got less, you would revolt. We currently accept a system that’s familiar but that we would never choose over the system everyone else uses. This is exacerbated by insane media bubbles (Fox News) which portray the needs of the mega-wealthy as the needs of the rural middle and lower classes. Again, this is a system almost impossible to fix.
Imagine a true democracy where every vote counted the same, the House of Representatives was proportional to state populations, there was no Senate at all, and the President was elected by a simple majority. This system would enact laws that helped the most number of Americans. Imagine living in this system, where again 80% of Americans live in the suburbs of major American cities, and you proposed changing it to the system we have today. For what? Because 20% of Americans aren’t being catered to? What services, exactly, are they getting today that they wouldn’t get in an equitable democracy? What argument would there be to wreck an actual democracy in order to draw lines in the dirt and give 4 senators to the Dakotas? Anyone making this argument isn’t serious. And the number of people making this argument is why the United States is being held back.
Here’s something that confuses me: My friends who are locked in this broken system are always talking about progress and innovation, but act like systems built 250 years ago should be locked in stone. Friends who believe in cut-throat competition don’t think we should try new things. Our current broken forms of Democracy and crony Capitalism are somehow the BEST WAYS POSSIBLE. Any discussion of reform makes them twitch. But reform is the only thing that could turn our current direction around. The Founding Fathers are celebrated for their vision and creativity, but both those things are now missing. It’s time to move on and build something new.
What would that look like? Here’s a potential framework:
Government structure:
- Federal parliamentary-presidential hybrid: proportional representation for the legislature (reduces two-party gridlock, gives third parties real seats), combined with a directly elected executive with limited veto power, to preserve accountability and stability.
- Independent judiciary with fixed terms (not lifetime) to reduce politicization, and a strong constitutional court for judicial review.
- Strong federalism: most policy experimentation happens at state/regional level (health delivery, education, zoning), while a few things are national (currency, defense, civil rights floor, interstate commerce, environmental standards).
- Ranked-choice or proportional voting nationwide to reduce polarization and two-party capture.
- Independent anti-corruption and electoral commissions, insulated from the party in power (modeled on countries like Germany, New Zealand, Nordic states, which rank highest on governance quality indices).
Economic system:
- Regulated market capitalism (“mixed economy”) — not central planning, not laissez-faire. Markets for allocating most goods/labor, because they’re the best-known mechanism for efficiency and innovation, but with:
- Strong antitrust enforcement to prevent monopoly capture
- Universal healthcare (single-payer or tightly regulated multi-payer, per Germany/Canada models)
- Strong public education + heavily subsidized higher ed/trade training
- A robust social safety net (unemployment, disability, pensions) funded by progressive taxation
- Public investment in infrastructure, R&D, and green energy
- Progressive taxation on income, capital gains, and wealth transfers (estates), closing loopholes that let effective rates fall for the ultra-wealthy.
- Labor protections: sectoral bargaining rights, portable benefits not tied to employer, minimum wage indexed to regional cost of living.
- Land value tax component to curb speculation and fund local services without penalizing productive investment.
Every word of this blogpost (and all my blogposts) are my drivel, but the above section is barfed out of any AI you ask to create a system that provides the best outcomes for the most people. Nothing revolutionary, except that replacing what rewards the rich here would be revolutionary. Other countries are adopting this model, and they are winning. But wait, you say. Those countries don’t have as many companies in the S&P 500. They don’t have as many billionaires. They don’t have such-and-such growth, or such-and-such stock market metrics. EXACTLY. What they have are a happier, healthier population with more time off with family, more vacation days, more social safety nets, younger retirement ages, better education outcomes, better transit options, better food supply, and don’t go bankrupt because of a medical condition. The PEOPLE have a better life (I’ve lived in both extensively). Arguing what’s better for corporations or the top 1% makes you sound sick in the head.
And so this is where we stand. The most powerful country in the world is riding on advantages set up by the world wars, but that lead has been squandered and its riches have been diluted by the corruption of our political and economic models. It is now only a leader for the wealthy and businesses, and its power is only projected by a gross and disgusting war machine that hasn’t done anything good for the world since World War II. Any defense of this system is the opposite of patriotism and spits in the face of the spirit of the founding fathers, who were brave enough to toss off the yoke of broken burdens to create a better world from scratch. Until we find similar courage and good sense, the slow burn will continue. I’m not optimistic.
EDIT: This video came out a couple weeks after I posted this. Worth a watch:
Leave a Reply