送交者: 吴礼 于 2006-4-23, 15:35:44:
回答: All right you are rigth. But you have to admit the benefit and cost 由 skipper3 于 2006-4-23, 15:22:12:
Maybe not as important as in China.
For one thing, how much my tax bill will be? (But it seems people with "high income" come out as losers no matter what.)
For another thing, the government policies will play a big role in how we deal with the impending challenges of health care, social security, etc.
But in the U. S., there is a check-and-balance political system. For the two parties, both have “die hard” loyalists. They pretty much cancel out. The real outcome of the election is determined by swing votes. So independents like me may play a bigger role than their number indicates. But, of course, if you like neither party’s policy, there is not much you can do (as an individual, anyway).
Demonstrations in the U. S. do not have as much impact as in China. Demonstration is not legally binding to the policy makers. It only shows how strongly people feel about an issue, that they are willing to pay the price to express their feelings. But in the U. S., the price to pay is pretty small. Other than personal time, you don’t risk much or spend much. So unless it is a mass movement (such as in the 1960s), demonstrations are not taken very seriously.