What our founding fathers missed
The US government is about as close to perfect as any world government comes. Our founding fathers drew from the lessons of the past to try to form a republic that would protect every individual citizen and put their rights first. Unfortunately the greed and unscrupulousness of ambitious people cannot be underestimated. Over the years people have found ways to work within the system to improve their own situation at the expense of others.
Our founding fathers realized that the people that control the money supply control the economy which, in turn, allows them control of everything else in the system. They tried to put into place a system that would insure that our government would maintain complete control of our money supply. Almost 100 years ago Congress gave that power away to a panel of appointed bankers. Just look at where that got us. We gave up the gold standard because it limits the profits of the people at the very top of the totem pole. Basically the economy becomes stagnant because there is only so much money floating around. In other words you can only take so much money from everyone else before they start to feel the pinch and start to wonder what went wrong. Then the guys at the stop start to feel the pinch when the guys in the middle and at the bottom decide that it's better to hold on to what little they have left rather than continue to give it to the guys at the top.
They did everything that they could to keep church and state separate yet churches still get huge tax breaks from the government and the religious right still has an enormous amount of control over who gets elected. Don't even get me started on the religious lobbies. To say that religion doesn't have an impact on government is extremely naive. Some people think that it should. Then again a lot of extremely religious people that I've met firmly believe that everyone should believe the same way that they do. I have no problem with someone telling me that I should do something a certain way because their religion says so. I do have a problem with my government telling me that I HAVE TO do something a certain way because it's morale and the law says so (ie - what religion tells me to do.
The big screwup came when they failed to separate BUSINESS from state. Over the years it's become harder and harder to operate a small business or compete with some of the bigger businesses due to the cost of certifications, regulations, permits and everything else involved in starting a new business. I firmly believe that a lot of that has to do with lobbying. Big business can easily grease the palm of a politician or even promise him or a family member a (lucrative, high paying) job to make sure that they get what they want. Make it illegal for special interests to lobby politicians. Force politicians to liquidate public assets before taking office. Those two steps would go far to limit the pull that special interests have in politics. Just imagine if lobbyists had to lobby individuals...oh wait...kinda like the NRA does....
Our founding fathers realized that the people that control the money supply control the economy which, in turn, allows them control of everything else in the system. They tried to put into place a system that would insure that our government would maintain complete control of our money supply. Almost 100 years ago Congress gave that power away to a panel of appointed bankers. Just look at where that got us. We gave up the gold standard because it limits the profits of the people at the very top of the totem pole. Basically the economy becomes stagnant because there is only so much money floating around. In other words you can only take so much money from everyone else before they start to feel the pinch and start to wonder what went wrong. Then the guys at the stop start to feel the pinch when the guys in the middle and at the bottom decide that it's better to hold on to what little they have left rather than continue to give it to the guys at the top.
They did everything that they could to keep church and state separate yet churches still get huge tax breaks from the government and the religious right still has an enormous amount of control over who gets elected. Don't even get me started on the religious lobbies. To say that religion doesn't have an impact on government is extremely naive. Some people think that it should. Then again a lot of extremely religious people that I've met firmly believe that everyone should believe the same way that they do. I have no problem with someone telling me that I should do something a certain way because their religion says so. I do have a problem with my government telling me that I HAVE TO do something a certain way because it's morale and the law says so (ie - what religion tells me to do.
The big screwup came when they failed to separate BUSINESS from state. Over the years it's become harder and harder to operate a small business or compete with some of the bigger businesses due to the cost of certifications, regulations, permits and everything else involved in starting a new business. I firmly believe that a lot of that has to do with lobbying. Big business can easily grease the palm of a politician or even promise him or a family member a (lucrative, high paying) job to make sure that they get what they want. Make it illegal for special interests to lobby politicians. Force politicians to liquidate public assets before taking office. Those two steps would go far to limit the pull that special interests have in politics. Just imagine if lobbyists had to lobby individuals...oh wait...kinda like the NRA does....
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