I come from a third world country with tremendous inequality. I was born in the most privileged classes.
In my country, poor people who don’t pay a lot of money die like DOGS in hospitals. Private hospitals don’t hesitate to overcharge sick people as much as they can. If you are not happy, if you protest, they just let you die. We have mostly free elections. But they are useless. Because most of the time, useless and ignorant politicians get elected. Very few people read investigative journalism. In fact, our newspapers are mostly dead. I’m one of the very few people trying to financially support quality journalism in my country.
I used to think our problems were specific. We are dumb. We are fools.
Our problems are actually surprisingly common. I lived in many nations around the world. I noticed that in some countries, some cities, politicians can achieve absolutely amazing things in public health, labor rights, housing. They can really take great decisions. And I noticed that in some rich countries, like the United States, incredibly dumb and corrupt politicians can get massive popular support. And ordinary people always pay the price:
My conclusion was simple. At the end of the day, everything stems from the people. In corrupt places, like my country, people don’t pay attention to politics. They don’t educate themselves about policies. They don’t read quality newspapers. Few people get involved in the local community. As a result, they can be easily lied to by oligarchs.
In democracies that work great, like Denmark, you have ordinary people that educate themselves and actively get involved in their local community. They support strong independent newspapers. They join community organizations pushing for change. They pay close attention to their MPs and their votes.
If my comment helps people pay closer attention to politics, then I would have achieved my goal.
Thank you so much. This means a lot to me.
I come from a third world country with tremendous inequality. I was born in the most privileged classes.
In my country, poor people who don’t pay a lot of money die like DOGS in hospitals. Private hospitals don’t hesitate to overcharge sick people as much as they can. If you are not happy, if you protest, they just let you die. We have mostly free elections. But they are useless. Because most of the time, useless and ignorant politicians get elected. Very few people read investigative journalism. In fact, our newspapers are mostly dead. I’m one of the very few people trying to financially support quality journalism in my country.
I used to think our problems were specific. We are dumb. We are fools.
Our problems are actually surprisingly common. I lived in many nations around the world. I noticed that in some countries, some cities, politicians can achieve absolutely amazing things in public health, labor rights, housing. They can really take great decisions. And I noticed that in some rich countries, like the United States, incredibly dumb and corrupt politicians can get massive popular support. And ordinary people always pay the price:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2025/02/10/inhaler-cost-death-optum-rx-walgreens/
My conclusion was simple. At the end of the day, everything stems from the people. In corrupt places, like my country, people don’t pay attention to politics. They don’t educate themselves about policies. They don’t read quality newspapers. Few people get involved in the local community. As a result, they can be easily lied to by oligarchs.
In democracies that work great, like Denmark, you have ordinary people that educate themselves and actively get involved in their local community. They support strong independent newspapers. They join community organizations pushing for change. They pay close attention to their MPs and their votes.
If my comment helps people pay closer attention to politics, then I would have achieved my goal.