No, that is not "obviously not the case." In fact, it obviously is the case. Looting of the public purse has reached the point its beyond comprehension. Let's start with hundreds of billions of unaccounted for, stolen, or lost dollars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Pentagon cannot even conduct an audit. How about the Department of Justice. Eric Holder set the precedent of not prosecuting executives at large financial institutions using the excuse it would be detrimental the financial stability of the country. You've got to be willingly blind not to see Washington DC is now a hopeless cesspool.
Sure, the thousands of rank and file in these bureaucracies aren't out to scam America. Neither were the thousands of employees who worked at ENRON. But just as with ENRON, the leadership; the people whose hands were on the controls, made it a mission to obfuscate, coverup, and extract as many dollars as possible. The majority of the people working there either didn't know what was going on, or turned a blind eye because they didn't want to rock the boat and wreck the system they depended on. And I'm sure you would come back and say, but yeah - our government did its job and punished them, thus protecting the citizens as intended. Well, sort of. Internal whistleblowers brought it to light, and the government had no choice but do its job. And in this case, there was little if any benefit to the government to allow the scams to continue. The point I'm making here is that a bureaucracy, public or private, can be taken over by corrupt people and turn the organization into something other than its stated purpose for the sole benefits of the people running it.
We must deal with the anecdotes eventually because no big structural move is possible. The majority of people still see it your way (the system is imperfect and just needs some changes here and there, but its basically doing the job etc.) but that's rapidly changing. Very rapidly. No one has the answer. I believe a new monetary system is needed. I also believe it would be better for regions of the country - States or alliances of States - to secede and start anew. I'm sure you would mock this idea and say "Oh, burn the thing down; just give up. Blah, Blah, Blah."
Look. Our economic system is becoming wholly financialized. We depend on the rest of world to produce things and we pay for them with borrowed money (debt) and maintain the system by force. This is empire. The whole thing collapses eventually. The current system is now maintained by force. The benefactors are the 1% and probably the next 10% that support them. Its better to walk away and secede sooner, go through tough rebuilds, than to wait for collapse and the death and turmoil that will accompany that scenario.
Last edited: Dec 26, 2020