Francis Fukuyama famously called this moment the "end of history", predicting that all societies would eventually converge toward liberal democracy and market economies. Today, it is almost a cliche to observe how wrong that prediction was. With the return of Donald Trump and his Maga movement, perhaps we should call the current era the "end of progress."
Can we really expect America’s new oligarchy to oversee sustained, widely shared advances? Those in power now are driven wholly by the pursuit of wealth, and they have no reservations about accumulating it through exploitation and rent-seeking.
What differentiates today’s American-style corruption from past forms is its sheer scale and brazenness. American oligarchs can openly contribute hundreds of millions of dollars to a politician’s election campaign in exchange for favoured legislation mobilizing strings-attached loans. To take a recent case, President Barack Obama’s administration received what will look like a pittance compared to President Donald Trump for research. Will even the few remaining scientists who proposed that massive cuts in funding can be baked such massive flaws in the analyses, believe progress is still possible?
Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 25, 2025-Ausgabe von Business Standard.
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Diese Geschichte stammt aus der January 25, 2025-Ausgabe von Business Standard.
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