[brynb]

while important, the fiat currency is a second-order issue, imho. the root is self-serving corruption facilitated by an intricate apparatus based on bureaucratic capture. to even appear as a choice on the ballot, one must either be part and parcel of this widespread corruption, or one must take the system by surprise with vast amounts of money and bluster (trump trump something something, fat lot of good that did, though). one of the biggest issues we have is that so much “shadow money” is allowed to influence politics. if the government was originally supposed to be a “check and balance” against accumulation of corporate power against regular people, phenomena like Citizens United et al have guaranteed the undoing of that guardianship. it is a society of grift now, through and through. and of course, being adaptive creatures, we learn from example, and we learn from our enemies, so anyone who once played the “good guy” role is stooping as low as his opponent now. surveying the political landscape, it’s often hard to find anyone spending more time trying to solve problems as opposed to maximizing instagram likes and chances for reelection

NB: there’s that whole discourse about “how are you all multi-millionaires when the pay for senator/representative is at most a few hundred thousand a year?”