The Biggest Dissapointment In The Year - The Colbert Report

Originally posted by Mumbotron
reply to post by badmedia

 

Actually you did identify the problem before, which is private interests have taken over the legislative powers of the U.S. government. Because of that, laws get passed that don't reflect the best interests of the people of the U.S.A. and the world. Both parties are corrupt beyond redemption as they currently stand.
I wont go into an environmentalist rant but this is a good illustration of what I'm trying to express to you: I live in a place where there is still old growth forests. Tree farming is a proven failure in Scandinavia. A lack of regulations on forestry practices has and continues to this day to create an extreme long term environmental catastrophe. Somebody has to make the law: No cutting next to a fish bearing stream. Or in oil extraction somebody has to make the law: No contaminating the 400 square miles that surround your facility. Does this happen?- No. Actually the regulations exist but aren't enforced. Would having the government turn a blind eye to such things help? Well, I sure don't think it has so far.
One of the greatest assets of humanity is that we have different individuals with different strengths. Unlike a colony of bacteria, we can arrange our society so that the ones with strengths can assist the ones without through organization, whereas the colony of bacteria develops in a homogeneous manner. By expecting our economic and social order to "work themselves out" what will happen is the ones with strengths will dominate those without. The playing field has to be leveled. Ethics must be mandated because otherwise I feel like some people would act without them.

But you are supporting a failed system, and in the process giving people the false sense that things are being taken care of.

The problem of big money making it's way into these things needs to be accepted as going to happen. And then measures need to be put into place to stop it from happening. And that is exactly how this country was setup.

You see, it's not just about what is being done, it's about at what level is it being done. Big government = centralization. Centralization = elites that have much power, and that = corruption. So the federal government was kept limited with a specific purpose.

The rest of the power then goes down to the states and to the individuals. It is not the job of the federal government to do anything it wants, it's supposed to make sure the specific things listed are done and not infringed on.

So, these things should be handled by state and local governments. And it is the job of the federal government to insure that these state and local governments don't infringe on the rights. It is also to handle things which cross state lines etc. The civil rights movement where they went to the south and made sure black people we being allowed to vote - that is a legitimate job of the federal government. That is what they are supposed to do.

The more decentralized the power is, it means "power to the people". Because on the federal level, you get 1 vote in 100 million or so that vote. Your vote makes up a small % of the vote. If you put it at the state level, suddenly it's only 1 in a few million. You have more say in things in your state. If you go even further and put it on a local level, then it's like 1 in a few hundred. And you can even become a counsilman or mayor of a town somewhat easily(depending on the size of the town). The elections happen more frequently in the smaller places, which means it's easier to get change. Not to mention that person has to deal with the people directly.

This was the entire draw to small town living back in the day. Now people live in cities herded up like gazelle hoping the lion eats the guy next to him rather than him. Safety in numbers.

And when it comes to social programs. On a federal level you have 1 program for the entire country. It takes 4-8 years for just a chance at change. If a bad change is made, the entire country is screwed over. Move that down to a state level. Now rather than 1 program, we have 50. Each working to be the best. This allows many different things to be tried at once, and if 1 state screws up, only that state suffers. And they have 49 other programs to look at to help fix it, rather than none. Once again you have more say in things due to 1 in less votes, as well as that you get to vote more often. This is the system the U.S. had for years and was the reason it was #1 in the world in most areas of measure from healthcare, to education and freedom. Not even close in those categories today in any of them.

And you can even move that down further to local communities. And then you have 1000's of programs to try things with, with the people themselves having direct control over those, and able to make changes quickly. If it doesn't happen, then they can move to another town or state without losing their basic rights.

If corruption sets into the small town, then it becomes the job of the state and then federal government to step in and make sure it's gone.

This is the purpose of the 10th amendment and part of the bill of rights.

So, those things would still be handled, but on a state and local level. Just because people don't want them on a federal level doesn't mean they don't want it to be handled at all. It's not about the issue itself, it's about the system and processes behind them. Do you think we want to live in a place that is run down, polluted and with bad schools? Not at all - I want freedom.

This is what it means to be Libertarian, not that crap Rush talks. If Rush = Libertarian I'd not be support them at all. He's a loud mouth hypocrite and a puppet right along with Hannity.

This is what the constitution says, and this is how the country was founded. But people have given it all away over the years because they believed officials from higher parts of government were going to handle the problems, just like you do. And what we have today is a direct result of it.

reply to post by badmedia


I think my last post clearly states that I feel the system isn't working and needs revision.Nope, no false hope here. Again, we need to get private interests OUT of the legislative body. If public officials stop representing the people who elected them but instead private interests, they should be tried for treason. Who really wants 50 social programs that are in competition with one another, certainly not me. The answer isn't 0 social programs though, IMHO. Policies need to be available and in place to govern the social responsibility that large entities need to maintain for a safe and healthy society. We can't wait until it is potentially too late to identify and correct what may be unethical. I like your imagery of gazelles and lions, however I don't see how it is relevant. The lions are the big corporations and they want the federal government out of their business, if they can't have that (which they can't) then they want to control the federal government.

reply to post by Mumbotron


50 programs is not a competition. People want the best by default and so will look for that. Competition means you hide things from others, thats not helpful nor can you hide rules and ways of a system. Coompetition is a more suitable word if it existed. Each individual, but you share and such.

So when 1 state finds something that works, then other states are then able to apply those same basic principles to their own programs. As such, many things are able to be tried at once which allows for a much greater rate of improvement.

I apply this principle in my company and it works great. My company runs many websites and things on business related topics. So we have people who each work on their own sites, sometimes blogs or whatever. And when one person finds something that works, we all pick up and apply it. When we find things that don't work, then we all learn from that as well.

We give people the freedom to try their own ideas and things, keeps them happy and productive etc.

So it's not a competition at all. It's like having 50 hands instead of just 1. Much more you can accomplish.