Re: If its on the internet...
"@chen "it seems to be getting worse, , ,""
The Internet and popular media are trivial in comparison to what is occurring in government, particularly in the US and UK, where we have all lost our abilities to think critically about anything.
Whether something is right or true--in the sense that those terms are used in math and formal logic--has become completely irrelevant. Perception is reality.
Unfortunately, those who govern in our respective countries have spent the last half century (at a markedly accelerated pace since 2011) crafting laws and regulations to create the perception of doing something, to no practical benefit for anyone except a select set of fiancial interests that perpetuate their power.
The standard response of those who govern, one I encounter almost daily in my profession is, "We know what we have is wrong, but we have to do something." Perhaps, But does it always have to be somethng abysmally stupid to the detriment of the ordinary citizen who are the productive lifeblood of our countries and for the financial gain of those who produce nothing.
Consider this. . . In the years after WWII several generations of Americans spent their lives producing goods and services of value and saved to accumulate wealth. Those who govern and the money-changers have rigged the system so that, for the last full decade, they have essentially paid those who earned the wealth essentially nothing (less that a percent) for use of their savings. At the same time through bewildering array of arcane practices, deliberately enabled by legislation, they demand exorbitant rates for the consumers, use of money. And this depite the fact that information technology has drastically cut the operating costs in the insurance and financial industry.
Let's call it what it is--government sponsored greed, fraud, and abuse on an incomprehensible scale. For the common good, we, the people, need to wrap our minds around the problem and give it some critical thought.