Back in the day there were big infrastructure projects, the interstate highway system, nuclear fission reactors, USA was once a leader in rail, but now it seems USA can’t build any infrastructure at all, HDI is lowering, life expectancy is not as high as most other OECD countries. Anyone know what happened to cause this?
Is it not material? I think its a material reality of capitalism and the way it functions that it encourages power and wealth to be accumulated in the hands of a few people, this then encourages nepotism to ensure this accumulated power and wealth stays in the “in” group. Nepotism then leads over time to the people who hold all this power and wealth to be kind of incompetent.
This isn’t something that just happens randomly. Its a fundamental part of how capitalism functions. Its part of why its always failing so spectacularly. Shortsightedness and the inability to plan for long term goals.
Its the same issue that a system like monarchism had. You have these people born into massive wealth, everything is handed to them, and they never have to work for anything. Then theyre given tons of power. Of course they’d do stupid shit. Its inevitable.
It’s also actionable. Look at a country like China. They make sure the politicians there prove themselves, and work their way up from the bottom. This builds skills they need to later go on to take on larger roles. By doing this China ensures that its policymakers, and politicians are exceedingly competent. This can be seen in how they run circles around the west in basically every interaction.