Do you trust your government?

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Quick curiosity thread/poll, but do you trust your government?
Is your trust in your government at an all-time low or high right now?
Do you trust your government to make the right decision concerning economy or do you even trust it to tell the truth on important public matters?
What issues have led you to trust or mistrust your government more?
Are there some politicions in your government that you firmly believe in or support?

 

[Hezam]

i wanted to pick "I don't trust the government at all!" but i think i barely trust the goverment.

 

[Nieves and Co]

Mixed decisions...... ^.^

 

[Yukiko chan]

There's no government that I can call "my" government, but I don't trust any government at all, just as I don't trust any authoritative entity which establishes itself as the "source of truth", the "protector", etc. and pretends to know the "best" for me...

Authoritative figures, even when they are well-intentioned, corrupt individual will and freedom, in that they often impose their own ideology/objectives as the only ones deserving consideration, regardless of the individual's ideology/objectives and their own personal judgement.

And when I have to deal with such entities (there's no avoiding it in many cases), I take with a grain of salt everything they say or do... in my view, governments are guilty until otherwise proven...

 

[Elizabeth van Kampen]

Yes, I trust some politicions, not others.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

I don't just distrust this government, I'm actually offended by it. They are instituting a programme of brutal cuts to public services under the guise of reducing the deficit, when they haven't even looked into what alternatives might allow them to protect those services that people rely on most. It's not just their actions that offend me, but the rationale behind them. This government are cutting these services because they don't give a damn about ordinary people. The last government made some terrible mistakes, but I truly believe that at least some of the time they were motivated by a sense of responsibility towards the citizens of this country. They introduced the minimum wage and tax credits, which lifted thousands of children out of poverty. They invested so heavily in the NHS that when they left office it was performing better than it ever had, with waiting lists down from 18 months to 18 weeks. When they made a mistake with tax rates that left the poorest people poorer they immediately corrected it and overcompensated those who were affected.

This government has only been in office for a year, and they've already begun to undo some of the good work done by the last lot. They say "we're all in this together", but it makes me feel physically sick that they think it's OK to make the poorest people in this country 5% worse off, while they waive the billions in taxes owed by some of the country's largest companies, and allow bankers to award themselves millions in bonuses. It makes me blind with rage!

/rant

 

[Haruspex]

The government is made up of a number of people whose decisions are influenced by the rest of Parliament to varying degrees. Parliament itself cannot ascertain what its intentions, clearly, are, how could I hope to be able to do that? I can't and for that reason I do not trust any parliament. There are groups of individuals, larger or smaller, who all have their personal motives and agendas and so on and they are, perpetually, engaged in trickery, persuasion and hell knows what else behind the scenes. Why should I trust these people? There's only politicians I suspect less or the odd politician whom I simply don't suspect for one reason or another, but a whole government or even a parliament? No. When the legislature reaches consensus and unanimity, then maybe I will begin to trust them, not until then.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

It's not just their actions that offend me, but the rationale behind them.

I've actually come to the decision that the government is actually trying to run this country into the ground. It does SO MANY things that are bad for the economy, that even me an individual with no special education can see through, that how could i see this situation otherwise?

The government is either filled by a bunch of m0r0ns or that they are actually clever (certainly clever enough to create a system under the guise of democracy that always ensures their future survival regardless of the general publics wishes) and that they are not concerned about what happens to this country long term at all as long as they maintain power.

This government are cutting these services because they don't give a damn about ordinary people.

I don't think it cares about the people at all. We are just here to make government decisions legit and appear well meaning.

The last government made some terrible mistakes, but I truly believe that at least some of the time they were motivated by a sense of responsibility towards the citizens of this country.

Nope . Everything, absolutely everything, boils down to parties maintaining or gaining power.

They invested so heavily in the NHS that when they left office it was performing better than it ever had, with waiting lists down from 18 months to 18 weeks.

Just statistics though. Funneling people through the system quicker doesn't mean that people are getting better care. Quite the contrary. Labour left the NHS riddled by beaurocracy, debt & suffering.

This government has only been in office for a year, and they've already begun to undo some of the good work done by the last lot.

Meh, i don't think there was any good left by the last lot? Labour fullfilled none of its promises.

They say "we're all in this together", but it makes me feel physically sick that they think it's OK to make the poorest people in this country 5% worse off, while they waive the billions in taxes owed by some of the country's largest companies, and allow bankers to award themselves millions in bonuses. It makes me blind with rage!
/rant

Not just the poorest, but even the working/middle classes. Even some of the rich are being abused, who employ the very people needing jobs;

Burton's biscuits to cut at least 200 Wirral jobs

We've got to start looking after everybody, not just always focusing on the poor or other groups- we're all in this together and only by standing together can we make this country work. Our politicions thrive off creating divides between the people's of britain, whether between classes or income differences, obese & non-obese, smokers & non-smokers, employed & unemployed, house owners & the houseless, colours and cultural or religious backgrounds, natives & non-natives, old & young etc etc.

United we stand strong we are, un-united we fall.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

There are groups of individuals, larger or smaller, who all have their personal motives and agendas and so on and they are, perpetually, engaged in trickery, persuasion and hell knows what else behind the scenes.

All people in democratic politics are corrupted, simply because to start off and maintain a political career (or even party), you need vast sums of money.

And where does this money come from?

Sponsorship.

And sponsorship more or less equates bribery. And bribery is one of the oldest forms of corruption in the world.

And when you start to look at political "sponsership", who's sponsering who, all of a sudden the hypocrisies in our politicions actions & morality, the true bias in their actions, all of a sudden makes absolute sense.

In some sense, parliament & the MP's within is just a front or face for much deeper politics going on behind the scene's which has little to do with democracy.

I'm not saying i have a better system to replace democracy with, but regardless, the way we currently have it it's deeply flawed/corrupted.

 

[Tsuyoiko]

I've actually come to the decision that the government is actually trying to run this country into the ground. It does SO MANY things that are bad for the economy, that even me an individual with no special education can see through, that how could i see this situation otherwise?

Well, I don't like to say I told you so, but many of my predictions about how this government would turn out have been proven correct ;-)

Everything, absolutely everything, boils down to parties maintaining or gaining power.

I don't think that's necessarily true. I know from personal experience that there genuinely are people who get involved because they want to do good, so I'm not so cynical that I dismiss all politicians. I just think the system often makes it difficult for politicans to both stick to their principles and gain or maintain power.

Just statistics though. Funneling people through the system quicker doesn't mean that people are getting better care. Quite the contrary. Labour left the NHS riddled by beaurocracy, debt & suffering.

Shorter waiting times might not be the only indicator of better care, but they are a damn good start. If your treatment starts sooner, it's hard to see how that can be a bad thing! While it's commonly believed that bureaucracy increased under Labour, an international study by the Commonwealth Fund actually ranked our NHS as the most efficient in the world just last year. Staff and patient satisfaction increased over the last few years, as did life expectancy and survival rates from heart disease and cancer. Even Andrew Lansley acknowledges that the NHS is world class in many aspects!

Meh, i don't think there was any good left by the last lot? Labour fullfilled none of its promises.

I think it's unfair to say they did no good. At the very least they deserve credit for bringing in the minimum wage, and for other improvements to workers' rights. A fairer criticism is not that they did nothing, but that they did nowhere near enough and failed to follow through on some promising starts.

We've got to start looking after everybody, not just always focusing on the poor or other groups

I agree to a point. I believe in some universal benefits, such as the NHS, education, pensions, child benefit and DLA. But I think that help should be focused where it's needed most and that tax loopholes should be closed as the highest priority to maintaining public services.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Well, I don't like to say I told you so, but many of my predictions about how this government would turn out have been proven correct ;-)

Say wut '_' ? Dunno what you're referring to here.

I don't think that's necessarily true. I know from personal experience that there genuinely are people who get involved because they want to do good, so I'm not so cynical that I dismiss all politicians. I just think the system often makes it difficult for politicans to both stick to their principles and gain or maintain power.

No one who's involved for sincere good has any real power though. Sad but true. Trying to get into politics without mega sponsership is like someone trying to open up a family run little corner shop to compete with Tesco's- not gonna happen.

If your treatment starts sooner, it's hard to see how that can be a bad thing!

Its a bad thing if it comes at the cost of patient after care. People are just being kicked out of hospitals quicker before they are ready to go (or at been put into hospital units not suited for their needs etc). I'm concerned about how people are managing to get these results and not just the end product.

While it's commonly believed that bureaucracy increased under Labour, an international study by the Commonwealth Fund actually ranked our NHS as the most efficient in the world just last year. Staff and patient satisfaction increased over the last few years, as did life expectancy and survival rates from heart disease and cancer.

Do you have a website page to these stats?

Even Andrew Lansley acknowledges that the NHS is world class in many aspects!

Oh i'm not saying our NHS is rubbish or anything like that- i would rather have our NHS than the system they have in America.
BUT that doesn't mean it couldn't be far better. I'm not going to be grateful to some group of politicions for failing the basics or being mediocre and then telling me i should be grateful for whatever i've got. Its not like they set up the NHS. Britain is GREAT but not as great as what it could or should be.

I think it's unfair to say they did no good. At the very least they deserve credit for bringing in the minimum wage, and for other improvements to workers' rights. A fairer criticism is not that they did nothing, but that they did nowhere near enough and failed to follow through on some promising starts.

Minimum wage = great stuff. But even that was again done purely for the power (of which it is estimated brought in 1.5million supporters).

But i don't care only about the people in this country, i care about other people too. And i think you're forgetting a major thing that Labour started and that was War- what do you have to say about that?

Lies, bloodshed and corruption. These wars we have started or gotten involved in will have negative repurcussions far into the future than what you or i will live to.

IMO whatever good Labour managed was always undermined by what bad it did, and this ultimately is their legacy- failings & mistakes.

edit: spelling

 

[Nuala]

I don't trust my government. I have faith that they will not stab us in the back completely lest we would lose faith in it. We have a tendency of revolting in various ways when our government goes too far in our eyes, so it's in their best interests to keep us happy.

 

[noyhauser]

Having been on the "other side" its just lamentable to see everybody hating on public officials. They are people, often working in difficult, often essential jobs with relatively low pay given their responsibilities. Nobody actually goes and takes the time to understand the rationale or the position these people face in their job. Everybody just wants to see what their particular issue or interest met and when they don't get what they want they complain and criticize. There is no consideration of the fact that politicians and bureaucrats are not just responsible for meeting your interests, but that of the entire public.

Maybe its a product of our individualistic culture; we generally don't consider the fact that others also have legitimate concerns and public servants need to address them. And even when they address them successfully they get criticized. Its just a no-win situation.

This is not to say that there are bad apples in government. Of course there are. However I'd argue that the number is lower than in private sectors because the scrutiny is so high.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Everybody just wants to see what their particular issue or interest met and when they don't get what they want they complain and criticize. There is no consideration of the fact that politicians and bureaucrats are not just responsible for meeting your interests, but that of the entire public.

O really? Because to be honest in my position what happens to the NHS doesn't really concern me, nor immigration issues and the wars we're involved with don't effect me at all. But you know why i bother about these things? Because i care about the bigger picture!

I don't know who you're directing your post at but i detect a hint of self-pity while you accuse everybody for being self-centered when if anything all i see on this thread, section and forum in general is a lot of non-self-centered people who really do care about the bigger picture! Especially Tsuyoiko (even though we don't always agree on things)!

 

[Yukiko chan]

Having been on the "other side" its just lamentable to see everybody hating on public officials.

Tokis' question concerned the government and not public officials, i.e. the whole system with its structures, functions, operations, human components, etc. not those components themselves. The malfunctioning of the whole system could originate from a problem at the level of one or several components indeed, but it may also come from an inadequacy in the structure itself, even if each member is doing their best in their job.
Still, as far as we can see there's so much corruption among officials (not all of them of course), particularly the ones at the top, which diverts the original objective of the government (serving the people and reflecting their will into reality), to the interests of top officials and their cronies.
But as I said above, I think the core of the problem is the idea of government itself... unless we create a government of robots that we program ourselves, it would be practically impossible to avoid having some officials working mostly for their own interests rather than those of the general public. It's the human condition. I think altruism is just a form of egoism where self-interest meets the general interest. However, those for whom both interests coincide rarely make it to the top, as others pointed out above.
I think the next stage of social and political organization will (or at least should) be strongly impregnated by individualistic anarchism. If we follow the evolution of history, we see that humanity has moved from strongly authoritarian systems to less authoritarian ones...

Maybe its a product of our individualistic culture; we generally don't consider the fact that others also have legitimate concerns and public servants need to address them. And even when they address them successfully they get criticized. Its just a no-win situation.

I value individualism and consider it one of the highest values. I think that individualism combined with great knowledge and farsightedness would drive humanity much further than it ever did, along the line of development. I do not want people to sacrifice themselves for the community.. I want them to have lofty objectives, and work to achieve them, while understanding their own position in the human community and in the universe and that of their peers...

 

[Emoni]

If I don't trust people, then why would I trust groups of people? Let alone an entire government of people...

 

[UnknownE]

I do not trust any government.

 

[Red5]

I barely trust the government.

I don't want to deal with government even now I'm working at private sector not general one.

 

[Kaelus]

Governments are designed to be trusted. Especially in a Democracy. You may as well ask "Do you trust every other person in your country" since they (theoretically) all had a voice in choosing a specific representative to make very specific decisions.

 

[TorranceE]

This is another simple way to ask a complicated question. My government (the U.S. government) is overly beholden to corporate interests through the corruption of campaign finance. Real progressive solutions to our problems are not really offered to the voters, so that the government can't be trusted. Fix that, and it would become more trustworthy.

 

[SouthernJapGal]

I don't trust my government. I have faith that they will not stab us in the back completely lest we would lose faith in it. We have a tendency of revolting in various ways when our government goes too far in our eyes, so it's in their best interests to keep us happy.

You said that well, and they know if they don't fix things or make us happy..they'll know what happens..let me just say the 2nd amendment is a most beautiful thing..something a lot of countries do not have.

This is another simple way to ask a complicated question. My government (the U.S. government) is overly beholden to corporate interests through the corruption of campaign finance. Real progressive solutions to our problems are not really offered to the voters, so that the government can't be trusted. Fix that, and it would become more trustworthy.

Noticed you're in California..you hear about the Feds wanting to end federal aid to California unless they dont do something about medical marijuana dispensaries? So much for Messiah Obama keeping his promise to end the raiding from the DEA. Oregon and my state are also being threatened by them..this is just a tip of the ice berg on account to what you mention also..I think if something isn't done soon and let whats continuing to happen spin out of control..I think the government will be bigger than ever and I dont like big anything..including big government..I'll keep my job at this local mom n' pops outfit...thank you very much.

 

[Apereta]

I don't trust my government!!!The government has promised so much...Money Talks!

 

[zoomingjapan]

No, not at all.
Not that the government cares as foreigners have no rights (voting etc.) here in Japan anyways.
Especially after what happened last year with TEPCO and all ... who would still trust the Japanese government?!

 

[Lestat84]

Noooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I do NOT trust my government! I may be beating a dead horse but I don't trust them at all after 9/11. I firmly believenthe US government was involved somehow. Call me paranoid but I do believe the conspiracy theories.