• As an Italian, I can assure you that the structure of our government is good, the Constitution is top-notch, and the whole system is a masterpiece of art.

    Unfortunately, the entire thing is plagued by politicians, so it is falling apart.

  • No, the purpose of government is to preserve what they deem as “order”. For example, the US government is trying to preserve its own existance and preserve the status quo. They conduct surveillance and interfere with extremist groups, both left and right (although they seem to target left-wing groups more often). Governments uphold core principles they value. In the US, the Constitution are those core principles, a Republic of the People that has varying degrees of democracy over time. In China, it’s Marxism-Leninism (although their ideology has been shifting to Maoism, Dengism, and now Xi-ism?). In many middle east countries, it’s Islamic Theocracy.

    Governments with elements of democracy tend to “care about your best interests” more often than authoritarian ones, but its more about the core principles rather than the people running the government them selves. Over time, the people in government can shape it’s core principles.

    In summary, governments uphold a set of core values that may or may not be in the interest of the people, depending on whether or not the core principles allign with the core principles of what the people believe.

  • USA…government only cares about protecting corporate interests. Public safety and welfare is only considered when it can be used as a smokescreen to further corporate agenda. That’s what I think and you won’t talk me out of it.

  • It depends a lot which country, and who’s elected, and what the voter base is demanding.

    I can personally compare Québec, Canada vs Denver, USA.

    The US government, I feel like it truely doesn’t give a shit about individual people. Only profits and corporations. Québec has a ton of social programs, they kinda suck out of massive incompetence, but they do exist. You’re not gonna get sick and go bankrupt and then homeless. Unemployment is much more accessible. There’s always welfare to back you up if you end up in deep shit, it’s tight but it’ll feed you, sort of. I feel like the Canadian government generally tries to fight for the people, some would say at the cost of the economy, whatever, we’re alive and fine.

    I don’t exactly feel like my taxes are used well especially at the 52% bracket, but I do feel like I get some out of it, whereas in the US you just kinda have to pay 12 different for profit companies to get anything.

  • A government/country is an “it”, an abstract entity; it is not a living human being, and cannot “care” about anything.

    People working in that government care may or may not care about you, enough to change the behaviour of that government in a way that benefits you. But odds are that they don’t.

    And, just in case that the government in question is the one I pay taxes to (Brazil): the people in said government care about you as much as they care about a milking cow in a battery farm.

  •  kool_newt   ( @kool_newt@beehaw.org ) 
    link
    fedilink
    English
    4
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    As another commenter mentioned, the government (the state) is not a person and cannot care.

    Government and the state are tools. The thing about some tools is that they are really only useful towards certain ends. The state is fundamentally a tool of maintaining and expanding power. While it’s possible for those with power to do some good things, their overall effect is to allow the domination of most by the few.

    Government requires a state to function, a state as in a subset of the population claiming exclusive acceptable use of force in a given area.