The Era of Living Dangerously

[Ken White]

The Orphans(rich people) want help(tax beaks and bailouts) but it turns out they are Oprpahns because they murdered their parents.

If you really believe that, I got a bridge across Jordan Lake I'll sell you...

There are some rich people that want tax breaks and bailouts -- and there are some far from rich people that want no taxes and handouts. Both of those crowds are wrong. Fortunately, there aren't many of them. Most people act like they have some sense and some balance...

Unfortunately, the governing class (which Marx foolishly thought would behave properly but who never have or do) have not acted properly to restrain the worst instincts of capitalism nor have they have they halted the worst instincts of populism. Government has an obligation to restrain both and it has -- worldwide, not just in the US -- failed to do that. It has tried and will try to pander to both ends and thus will fail at its job of maintaining and fostering sense and balance.

Rich people's propaganda isn't the problem -- nor is Smith's and other's anti-capitalism cant a real problem. Government failure to behave responsibly is a BIG problem and it will never go away. So Marx was way wrong; the less government, the better and both the rich and unrich would have to take care of themselves instead of relying on a government that will generally fail to really take care of either side.

Not that any of that has the slightest thing to do with the thread...

[J Wolfsberger]

... the less government, the better and both the rich and unrich would have to take care of themselves instead of relying on a government that will generally fail to really take care of either side.

Wouldn't it be great if some country were to establish that as its governing principle?

Wonder how long that would last?

[Ken White]

Wouldn't it be great if some country were to establish that as its governing principle?
Wonder how long that would last?

From 1787 until 1913 is...

I know, I know -- 126 years!!!

[slapout9]

If you really believe that, I got a bridge across Jordan Lake I'll sell you...

I should have put quotes around the oprhans, it is from the video link I posted. Yes Marx was an Oprhan or rather little Freddie Engels was or the book would likley never have been written. However in the sense that oprhans are used in the video I do believe it is accurate. You cain't complain about big guvmint, and taxes and then go running to them for orphan help when things don't work out.

We need to get ride of the bridge... it messes up the Bass tournements.

[Ken White]

but then, I don't hit 'em up for help...

You cain't complain about big guvmint, and taxes and then go running to them for orphan help when things don't work out.

That doesn't seem to bother a lot of people...

Then there are those of us that are pretty sure the guvmint really cannot afford the cost of doing all that orphan help...

We need to get ride of the bridge... it messes up the Bass tournements.

Can't have that, I'll sell the Bridge to Bob Jones, he can shorten his commute by zipping across Hillsborough Bay...

[motorfirebox]

I think before we worry about the question of too much/not enough government, we should worry about the problem of unbelievable stupidity.

[Ken White]

Needs to be fixed, not worried about...

The problem, however, is that 'ignorance' cited in the linked article is due to the deliberate dumbing down of the electorate by the governing squirrels, on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue who work quite hard to obscure how deeply their hands are in the fabric of the nation -- mostly with a slew of programs that insinuate the government into everything to insure its primacy -- and the reelection of incumbents to the maximum possible extent. We are confronted with a Federal government that cannot do well the things it is supposed to do because it is so deeply enmeshed into many things that are none of its business

There's a simple solution; it started in 2010 -- vote 'em out of office. All of them, do not vote for any incumbent and eventually, those elected to Congress will get the word and fix it -- it will not get any better until they are forced to fix the damage they've done and they have no incentive to fix it as long as they're being reelected.

To return to the thread, none of that is really terribly dangerous -- so far -- it's just annoying...

[Bob's World]

Our government is excellent. But by "our government" I mean the Constitution that defines it. Our politicians and federal bureaucracy? Sadly, sadly off track.

Now, a certain amount of dysfunction is by design, as any government that can become too effective will also soon come to exercise too much control over the populace (for those who have studied our official COIN doctrine, yes, I realize "effective" governments that have "control" over the populace are promoted as excellent things. They aren't. They are just as often the cause of insurgency as the cure.)

The design of the US government is to keep control over government in the hands of the people, but it is incumbent upon the people to exercise that control or risk losing it. Even a masterpiece of COIN such as the US Constitution can be defeated if the people and the government over generations of stability come to forget or misunderstand why it is the way it is.

Even those Tea Partiers who wave their pocket copies of the Constitution like Southern Evangelists wave their Bibles don't fully appreciate WHY the Constitution is important, but even so they are on the right track in their commitment to the fact that it is.

Liberal, Conservative; Republican, Democrat. Personally I could not care less about such things. As Americans we have the right to believe whatever we want, and to stand on the corner and proclaim those beliefs alone, assembled in groups, or published in the press. That I care about. I have no entitlements as an American citizen other than the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. Anything else must be earned, and I am cool with that hard fact of life as well.

We are blessed with legal options to express our feelings and to shape our government. This was not something that was given to us, this is not something that was learned by smart people reading theoretical books on democracy and liberalism. This is the product of a group of men who grew to manhood under conditions of governance that they came to see as foreign, oppressive, and illegitimate in its claims to have the right to exercise such government over them. It came from their personal experience in dealing with the measures that oppressive regime applied to retain its control over them. It came from their decade long insurgency to throw off that hand that had grown oppressive and illegitimate over time. And it came from their realization just a couple years into "victory" that pure democracy was perhaps even more dangerous than effective oppression; and that securing the principles of good governance would have to occur first, to build the requisite trust to ever get to a degree of effectiveness that would allow a nation to grow and flourish.

But we forget the reasons behind the rules and rights laid out in our Constitution. We do so at our peril.

Insurgency does not happen when a government loses control of the populace; it happens when the populace loses control of the government. We are a long ways from that point, but we have been off track for a few generations, and it is never to early recognize that we are off azimuth and get back on track.

One mil of azimuth = one meter deviation at 1000 Meters. Anyone who has any experience in indirect fire or land nav appreciates that small azimuth errors compound quickly; whereas major location errors can be easily overcome. We may not know were we are, but that will sort out. Getting back on the right azimuth is the critical task.

[Fuchs]

Our government is excellent. But by "our government" I mean the Constitution that defines it.

Hardly. You're sticking to an outdated early try to get a constitution right.
It's so full of gaps and badly outdated stuff. Just look at the election process for presidency that allows for a president who lost the popular vote.

The primitive majority vote that discards millions of votes it badly obsolete as well. It was actually never necessary to have such a primitive mode of elections. Basic math allows for a much better mode.

A mix of voting for party AND voting for candidates (~as in Germany) allows for having regional representatives with strong connection to their region AND a representation that's proportional tot he actual preferences for parties. It also allows for more than two practical parties, while the obsolete majority vote systems force a two-party system onto the land.


There's even more to be criticised, but we hadn't any major attempts at improving constitutions for six decades, thus few examples of really advanced designs.


Your constitution that was basically designed for oligarchy is hardly "excellent".

[J Wolfsberger]

Our government is excellent. But by "our government" I mean the Constitution that defines it. Our politicians and federal bureaucracy? Sadly, sadly off track.

...

Excellent post.