If I may be permitted to have a go at answering your questions, the more dysfunctional societies tend to be those within which extremes of economic inequality are tolerated, and the USA is an example. For the relevant research, see the bestselling publications of Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett.
Unfortunately, the neoliberal economic policies pursued by Thatcher, Reagan, Clinton, Blair and others, which are - to a greater or lesser degree - based on the macroeconomic theories of Hayek and Friedman, have exacerbated economic inequality, as noted by authors like Ha Joon Chang, Manfred Steger, and David Harvey.
So the solution is to regulate capitalism a little more, in order to avoid events like 2008 and the opening of fractures and fissures within our society that are illustrated by the current emphasis on divisive forms of identity politics.
As for a political system, I have to be more utopian here and suggest that a system known as deliberative democracy is preferable to the one that we have, as it is more empirically grounded and less open to manipulation by powerful interest groups. For more on that (and how it has been shown to work on a smaller scale), see Paul Verhaeghe’s Says Who? The Struggle for Authority in a Market Based Society.
Incidentally, the reason for the book references is because I was once required to teach a course from scratch that entailed looking at how ethical the macroeconomic systems of capitalism and socialism actually are.
After several years of extensive reading in the territory of recent economic history, in terms of my own perspective, I have ended up coming down on the side of a restrained form of capitalism.
However, I now refrain from voting as I do not consider the system we have to be fit for purpose. The only reason I would vote now is to prevent an extremist party from taking power. Unfortunately, the Republican Party at present seems to be heading in that direction and so if I lived in the USA, I would have voted for the Democrats.
Couldn’t agree more with most of what you stated, except the voting part! :-)
I have always felt that unfettered capitalism is doomed to failure, and agree that capitalism has to have rigorous guardrails.
I believe the underlying economic model of the society should actually feed and nourish the society in which it exists. Sadly, the current model of American capitalism starves and leverages large swathes of society in its quest for ever greater profits, creating the exact opposite sentiment it should for the society it is supposed to feed.
One of the problems with American politics IS the Constitution! It is like the Ten Commandments to Christians...divine intervention in a “bad” world.
Accordingly, when trying overlay ANY economic system on the political structure we have, it distilled BACK DOWN to the desires of old white slave owners who wanted to protect themselves from ruin, and THEIR new country from despots and monarchs that might fuck up their good deal.
Today, well over 200 years later, we are still beholden to those men, the letters they sent to each other, and the rules of the game they created for themselves in the late 18th century.
When you say it out loud, it sounds insane, but when you are raised inside it and you are told “Freedom, Freedom, Freedom,” as if there is no other possible way to enjoy the freedoms of a civilized society without adherence to these “rules from God for the greatest nation ever created by him!”
Again...it just sounds insane if you say it out loud. However, say THAT out loud in almost anywhere in America and YOU are the one that’s told YOU are insane and that it’s the greatest document ever written by anyone anywhere ever!
Conservatives rely on it to stop Progressives, and the Framers could never have imagined how uncivilized the decision makers they created to uphold and defend it would become. Indeed, it has become SO hard to pass Amendments, the last one (27th) took 203 years to be ratified by enough states, and the one before that was only passed because America wanted to allow men they sent off to war to be able to vote! At the time of Vietnam, the voting age was 21, but the draft began at age 18!
America...it might be young, but it’s stubborn!
