Tuesday 31 January 2017

The Fix-Nothing Farce of Symbolic Politics

oftwominds - Charles Hugh Smith:

Solutions gut the rackets by breaking down the status quo's regulatory walls protecting the privileged elites who are stripmining the bottom 95%.
Much of what passes for politics these days is symbolic. Anyone who studies the issue of illegal immigration concludes that the solution lies not in building $10 billion walls but in changing the incentive structure of citizenship, legal and illegal immigration. As long as successfully crossing the border enables access to free healthcare, education and sanctuary and the potential for cash work--the equivalent of winning the lottery for those with none of these benefits--walls will be tunneled under, overflown or bypassed by sea.
The Trump Administration's proposed policies on tariffs, walls to stop illegal immigration, etc. are defended as symbolic gestures--in other words, their value is in communicating "things have changed", not actually solving the problems facing the nation.

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