Economics and China

[Taem]

Tyranny? .... such as the tobacco tax and alcohol tax.

Primarily I reject rampant excesses of Progressivism. The goal of which, is to use government to mold a better society.

I don't know if I agree with your sentiment on this logic. In the early era of our species, we have traditionally gathered into clans and tribes, most likely for protection purposes having evolved from when we were monkeys, however these clans have always rejected being absorbed into a larger body for the good of all. There have been many historical conquests to takeover and absorb countless countries into a monarchs reign, and not always because they wanted to exploit the natural resources of the area, but because by bringing this country into their fold, it would help stop fighting which was costly, help build roads to connect areas together, etc. etc... The point is, the concept of a government doesn't start out bad, but has roots in a solid philosophy to unite people, and unfortunately history has proven most of the time it must be done via force because... shocker... humans are reluctant of change, even when they know it's better for them**. Of course there are examples of countries relinquishing their sovereignty at will, such as Texas to the United States, but these rare cases are usually due to either an act of protection, or extreme poverty of a country, not because the country wakes up one day and says, "hey, we can save a ton of money and resources if we combine forces with country 'x'"... doesn't happen. So I think we can agree a lot of good comes from big government, and the concept of Progressivism is sound:

some American progressives rejected Social Darwinism, believing that the problems society faced (poverty, violence, greed, racism, class warfare) could best be addressed by providing good education, a safe environment, and an efficient workplace.

This is so true, and many posters on this site haven been keen on pointing this out as well. Of course it starts at home, educating parents to be better role models for their children, but give them a good job with time to spend with their families, give the children a good education and free college in a crime-free society, and you will have a society that succeeds. I don't disagree with anything in that link.

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Again, another great response by you to which my mind is again taken aback. Yes, the war on drugs is a fine example of how this "progress" has failed, how force doesn't always win because, as I pointed out above, people are reluctant to change. When you look at the big picture, it is quite bleak and depressing. So, lets take your fictional world where if enough voices scream out, people will listen, or lets say that's impossible knowing that most people simply don't change once they've made up their minds, and lets say we finally run out of resources and it begins afflicting the lives of everyone and they suddenly wake up to the reality that this world cannot sustain itself and suddenly decide to reduce waste en masse... but by then, its too late. Okay, now lets take my approach (the Emperor was actually the good guy in Star Wars logic here), and expand big government and control the flow by taking over the world (extreme points of view call for extreme possibilities), and forcing companies to only produce recyclable goods that last a minimum of 15-years, and then the rebels come in and destroy everything which is why we can't have anything good! There is no winning this war because in a nutshell, everyone is selfish. We can debate on this fine website the pro bonos of austerity, but these concepts simply won't succeed in the world we live in due to the way people are hardwired to think, and neither your way nor mine will solve anything in the end until its too late. People like us, who are proactive thinkers, are far and few between unfortunately. I can't tell you how many people I've talked to during voting season who have, excuse the profanity here, no fucking clue what they are really voting on! They listen to commercials and talk to others and have made up their minds based on rumors and bullshit without lifting a finger to do any real research themselves and ironically, if they find out the truth about something they are voting for actually goes against their beliefs, again as I pointed out, they are reluctant to change their votes because once someone has made up their mind, it's finished! We swim in a sea of morons kandrathe. I should have finished school instead of starting a family so early... then maybe I could have made a difference instead of wasting brain-cells performing my current occupation. Peace-out!

**there are many more example I can link to that prove that as a species, humans will always do things such as: believe what they first heard, even when shown contradictory evidence and in some cases, this even enforces their original belief.