• slickgoat@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Not American, but curious as to why you don’t vote for polices that prevent the healthcare ripoff?

    I mean, it’s all well and good applauding a single man’s actions, but you all could affect change of there was a genuine will to do so. Other western countries don’t have this problem that you are seemingly powerless to change?

    • antlion@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 days ago

      The wealthy own everything. The media, the campaign funding, the concert venues, the restaurants, the farmland, the water, the houses, the offices, the railroads, the textbook publishers. Fucking everything. The only thing our government does well is print more money for the rich.

    • H0neyc0mb@lemmy.world
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      5 days ago

      Healthcare was barely even discussed during the last election. Trump has no plans to improve it and Harris didn’t campaign on it. We can’t just directly vote for laws, we have to elect leaders that would write a bill and vote for it. And pretty much everyone in Congress is bought out by Big Pharma, which has more money than god so it buys elections.

      • Matombo@feddit.org
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        5 days ago

        tl;dr the USA is not really a democracy, just as the founding fathers intended.

      • slickgoat@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        Even I know that Trump did his best to sabotage the ACA. It’s not a secret. Just vote for the direct opposite of that fuck.

        • IamSparticles@lemmy.zip
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          4 days ago

          Try explaining that to the typical Republican party voter, though. All they know is “Obamacare BAD!” because that’s the message that has been pumped into their brains non-stop for the last 10 years. When you actually start explaining the specific things that the ACA established they’ll say, “Oh yeah, that seems like a really good thing, we should do that!” They don’t understand that ACA and Obamacare are the same thing.

          We are inundated with these sort of low-information voters who don’t understand how their representatives are literally screwing them over while blaming the other side for all their woes.

    • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Not American, but curious as to why you don’t vote for polices that prevent the healthcare ripoff?

      Because they aren’t on the ballot.

      • GeeDubHayduke@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        4 days ago

        And when they are they’re so stuffed full of pork that to vote for healthcare you also have to vote for having your bones ground for tomorrow’s bread.

      • kent_eh@lemmy.ca
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        4 days ago

        Because they aren’t on the ballot.

        Get involved earlier in the process.

        Today’s school board members are tomorrow’s city councilors, and they are the next batch of senators, governors , congressmen, and even presidents.

        A small number of people helping select candidates and voting can have a much bigger impact in the “minor leagues” of politics, and can shape the future direction of the country.

        • Ensign_Crab@lemmy.world
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          4 days ago

          Get involved earlier in the process.

          Things are as you like them, but now it’s my fault.

    • Infinite@lemmy.zip
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      4 days ago

      There are several (very simplified) factors:

      • the parties in power won’t fix voting so others can join in proportionally
      • the parties in power are mostly guided by the wealthy (often via corporate influence), just with slightly different flavors
      • many of our citizens are one or more of poorly educated, uninformed, radicalized, and selfish
      • the wealthy tend to support policies that keep them wealthy and the electorate controllable
    • ramsorge@discuss.online
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      4 days ago

      What is vote? We elect people, not policy. Then those people get purchased by companies, and they do whatever is best for the company.

      • slickgoat@lemmy.world
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        4 days ago

        In the end, it doesn’t matter whether you vote for people or policy then. If you are going to be shafted anyway it doesn’t matter.

        However, as I said in my original post, this seems to be a very unique problem in the Western world. Other first world countries vote for people and policy and our experience is somewhat different.

        • ramsorge@discuss.online
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          4 days ago

          Lmfao. “Western problem” sure buddy. The “east” is doing so well. Russia, china, North Korea… they’re all known for their “fair voting.”

          Get off this east vs west lie and get down with blaming the global oligarchs. They’re all playing the game and they’re on the same team—the one you’re not on.

          • slickgoat@lemmy.world
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            4 days ago

            I may have been unclear. If so, I apologise for it. I meant out of all the First World countries, the US (the richest country on the planet) has the worst health care outcomes.

            Comparisons outside of the Western sphere, particularly with communist dictatorships, won’t really work.

    • agent_nycto@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Because we are powerless to change it.

      The corporations have lobbied (bribed) both political parties so hard that both sides work for them.

      Any attempt to change the voting system gets shot down because the people in power don’t want to change the system, because it benefits them. Why make the game fair when it’s rigged in your favor?

      Half the country is brainwashed into thinking any social help or reform is socialism (which is pure evil! Helping others is evil!) and a trick from the inept party to try to gain political influence. And the inept party just fails to deliver on any sort of reform because they want to appeal to that brainwashed half of the country.

      Any grass roots effort that makes any traction gets shot down by the establishment, usually by rileing up the brainwashed half.

      We WANT the change. But even if we could get the brainwashed half to vote for it, the system is so rigged and broken even if we did vote it in they would veto it or change it in two years.

    • UnhingedFridge@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      A lot of people on the right have been duped by those taking advantage of them for profit, making them focus on the left somehow being evil through the targeting of identity politics. Many are just now waking up to the fact that the talking heads they trust have made their worth by dividing us.

      It’s all thanks to oligarchs and using their money to buy out policies from lawmakers while making their constituents stay angry elsewhere. Our whole system has been fucked for a while, unfortunately.

    • BigBenis@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Because America is not a functional democracy but rather an oligarchy driven by the will of the elite.

    • ryedaft@sh.itjust.works
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      4 days ago

      Somehow people were voting for the republicans to fix healthcare. Yes, it’s true.

      The second thing is that US legislators have about 40% yearly profits on their investments. So they are very incentivized to make things better for the owning class. Or at least not make it any worse.