this gets into the semantics of the term dysfunction. I think if we did a point by point walk through of any given portion of the history of US government one could find a bounty of examples of dysfunction. It would simply be a matter of choosing what portions of history you wished to look closely at.
and RE your point b)
This is a far bigger set of assumptions and faulty observations. Firstly not all of those projects constitute a singular 'success' rather than simply the emergent of some system that produces a wide range of results. The funding is simply a component of that and the ultimate determining factor as to whether or not the net result of that funding was better than other alternatives that could have existed in it's absence is something that's not easy to quickly determine.
Reminds me of getting a large and extremely demanding client. Certainly one may be gaining far more money than they ever did prior to having said client, but if the demands and side effects of having the client are too high then even the masses of money one makes, when placed in context to the big picture and the actual desired ends, may not result in an optimal, or even a positive, end.
One needs but look at state welfare in Europe to see an example of this. The state takes care of people and one of the fall outs is that individual persons, beyond what they are obligated to give through taxation, help their fellow countrymen at far lower rates than they do in less socialized nations. There's always unseen costs.
Are you seriously going to try to make either of these arguments?
a. Your original point suggested that continuous dysfunction is the reason that the U.S. is successful. Not only is this nonsensical, it is ahistorical. Yes, the U.S. has had periods of hyper-partisanship prior to the last fifteen years. The most serious of these resulted in a war. However, over most of the last 224 years, the U.S. has had more periods of cooperation and compromise than hyper-partisanship and dysfunction. Even during the 1930s (where there a plot to stage a coup d'état, defeated only because the plotters misjudged their preferred candidate) and the 1950s (e.g., McCarthy) the business of government moved forward and there were measurable improvements in the quality of life and infrastructure directly attributable to government intervention. (See also the TVA.)
b. Your assessment is flat-out incorrect on numerous levels. Again, it assumes facts that are not only not in evidence, but contrary to the facts that actually exist. This is a common problem with choosing to believe ideological stances rather than comparing them against facts.
Under no circumstances do I think that all government programs are successful; however, the U.S. saw greater real economic growth during times of higher government spending on infrastructure programs and social programs (as I indicated) than it has when these things fall to the best “interests” of the monied classes and so-called “Christian charity”.
I don’t know what your particular political stance is, but your characterization of the charitable nature of Europeans is misguided, at best—a lot of the higher “charitable” donation rates in the U.S. are because (1) the government funds aren’t there to assist those in need, (2) there are greater tax incentives to donate more. I put “charitable” in quotes because all donations to churches—for any reason whatsoever—are considered tax deductible in the U.S. Most of those donations are not used for local charitable assistance (e.g., soup kitchens, etc.) activities; they are used for church building maintenance, salaries, mission work, etc.
I suspect (because I don’t know where to find the actual numbers for this) that if you were to measure per-capita charitable assistance spending through charitable donations, it would be similar. I also don't happen to think that the success of a nation should be measured on how financially charitable its people are to those less fortunate members of society—I think it should be measured on how few of its people have what is now termed food insecurity. If that can be done with charitable donations, great—but as the U.S. amply demonstrates, it cannot and never could.
this gets into the semantics of the term dysfunction. I think if we did a point by point walk through of any given portion of the history of US government one could find a bounty of examples of dysfunction. It would simply be a matter of choosing what portions of history you wished to look closely at.
and RE your point b)
This is a far bigger set of assumptions and faulty observations. Firstly not all of those projects constitute a singular 'success' rather than simply the emergent of some system that produces a wide range of results. The funding is simply a component of that and the ultimate determining factor as to whether or not the net result of that funding was better than other alternatives that could have existed in it's absence is something that's not easy to quickly determine.
Reminds me of getting a large and extremely demanding client. Certainly one may be gaining far more money than they ever did prior to having said client, but if the demands and side effects of having the client are too high then even the masses of money one makes, when placed in context to the big picture and the actual desired ends, may not result in an optimal, or even a positive, end.
One needs but look at state welfare in Europe to see an example of this. The state takes care of people and one of the fall outs is that individual persons, beyond what they are obligated to give through taxation, help their fellow countrymen at far lower rates than they do in less socialized nations. There's always unseen costs.