--- Michael McIntyre <mcintyremichael at mac.com> wrote:
> trough. So which European government is Woj talking
> about? Germany?
> (An honest question, not a snark).
>
[WS:] What I had in mind was not performance of any particular government, but rather investment in public goods. Surely, individual governments or government officials are corrupt, and Europe is no exception. But European governments have also a consistent policies of investing in public goods - anything from railroads to highways, city infrastructures to schools, hospitals, cultural centers, etc.
No such policy exists in the US with the exception of the military buildup and the interstate highway system, which ironically, was initially biuld as a defense infrastructure. Any inveestment in land and public structures is private and exists only inasmuch as it generates profits to its private owners - either through fees or public subsidies. Government "public" expenditures are basically subsidies of private profits instead of maintaining public goods. This holds true for anything from farm subsidies to food stamps, to culture, and to medicare.
This is why this whole country looks like a fucking rathole - everything built on the cheap, flimsy and covered with papier marche, and abandoned as soon as its profitablity ends. This is a stark contrast with Europe, visible with a naked eye.
The only public area with a substantial public investment is the military - and it shows. We have the best equipped (if not the most capable) military in the world, albeit the Bush gang started privatizing this area as well. If this trend continues, the US military will look like anything else private in this country: plywood coverd with glitzy papier marche and fabulous salaries for the top brass.
Wojtek
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