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Comment by teiferer | Hacker News Reader

> Who should you be worried about?

For Americans the answer is obvious since they are biased in this.

For everybody else, your question is valid.

Dont pretend americans dont need to be afraid of american government. look at the state of the place. A lot of them arent exactly thrilled with their current environment, job market, education, prisonsystem, gun laws, food industry, healthcare etc. etc.

the question is valid for anyone who cares for more than their own ass

I'm an American, but I do not think the American government being strong helps me or my fellow Americans. The less America can project its cultural and military power on the rest of the world, the better.

There are different kinds of strengths. There was a past American government that was strong enough to stamp out inequality and fight for civil rights. To overturn oppression and give everyone an equal opportunity to succeed. That's a strong American government I could get behind.

That is quite a take, but I guess it's the perspective that the American education system indoctrinates.

Economic inequality is higher than it's ever been in the US. The reforms you're talking about largely happened in the single term of LBJ, I don't think it can be extrapolated to the "US government"

> There was a past American government that was strong enough to stamp out inequality and fight for civil rights.

this is a hilariously naive rewriting of history, the government was very reluctant to make those changes. It's thanks to popular movements that those changes were made.

I'm thinking specifically of the Little Rock Nine in 1957 where President Eisenhower took charge of the national guard so that nine Black students could attend high school. The government isn't one monolithic entity. It's a bunch of people doing different stuff, and some of them suck, and some of them are awesome.

> The government isn't one monolithic entity

Ok but when you said "There was a past American government that was strong enough to stamp out inequality" you did not make that distinction. The US government in 50s and 60s was not responsible for giving you civil rights, it was popular movements.

Yes. We can go into a whole history lesson and you can call me naive some more if it makes you feel bigger but doesn't seem like fun. To go back to my original point, a strong American government is a good thing in the places where it can do good, and is a bad thing in places where it will do bad. I would like the government to step in a build more housing, for example. A weak government can't do that. The market's failed to do that for all sorts of reasons.

Considering who has been their president for 2 terms, and most likely a third one, I really wonder.

All my life I heard American boasting their constitutions but now it's as worthy of my toilet papers.

Turns out the whole system is quite fragile when faced with people who have no interest in anyone besides themselves

The American government has caused the death of a lot more Americans than China has.

Cultural revolution?

How many Americans were killed during the Cultural revolution?

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