Checks and Balances(bipartisism) only words now?, page 1

Excellent thoughts!

As I see it, one of the major contributing factors to the poison pervading the political scene these days is that PROFIT has become essentially the only driving factor in far too many areas of life.

It is rare anymore for a corporation to consider anything beyond profit, and short-term profit at that.

Now before anybody gets too excited, I have no problem with a company making a profit... that's the whole idea behind capitalism, and it has proven to be a very effective economic model.

However, when profit becomes the ONLY driving force, then it has reached the point where it needs to be dialed back a bit.

Business entities ideally would have an honest concern for the welfare (not Welfare) of the communities in which they operate. And far too frequently they do not. I have seen interviews with recent business school graduates who stated right up front that their only consideration in business is to maximize profits of the shareholders. And they see nothing wrong with this.

And it is this attitude which leads to the Enrons, Haliburtons, Blackwaters and AIGs.

And this contributes to the poison at the political level because the profit motive has become primary there as well. And politics, again ideally, is an area where profit should not be in the equation.

But today, and for the last couple of decades, we have profit-motivated lobbyists working in DC with profit-motivated government employees (aka Senators, Representatives, Presidents, etc).

Each 'side', as it has evolved, has its own profit (and by this I mean profit ONLY) motivated reasons for pushing one agenda or another. And since profit is the one and only consideration, the real benefit of the Republic is left in the dirt.

And if left unchecked, it will mean the end of the Republic.

Sadly, this is not the kind of thing that can be legislated. It needs to come from within. Business leaders need to be able to say "I'm going to do X because it will benefit my community (be that community the local town, state, country or the world) even though it will reduce my profit."

Some of it can be legislated to remove the profit motive. For example, election funding can be changed. This idea usually results in spastic reactions of dismay, but consider how well the system is working now. Federal employees that are involved in legislation can be barred from having income other than their salaries. After all, the basic idea of government work is to SERVE, not to MAKE MONEY.

The profit motive can be removed from war, as well. The people who are on the front lines protecting this or any country are certainly not making any huge profit, they are for the most part there out of a sense of wanting to serve. This attitude does not exist so much in the various war industries.

We as a nation (speaking of the US here) need to take an honest look at how things are done here, and course-correct where needed. We need to do this without the knee-jerk reactions that normally accompany this.

"Public funding of elections?!? That's Communism!" or some such tripe. Given the reality of how poorly the current system is working, and how quickly it is trending towards the end of the Republic (this is assuming it hasn't already ended, for which there is much evidence to support), some honest self-examination would be of much benefit.

And given that fundamental change in philosophy - where profit is fine, but it is not the ONE and ONLY driving force - will, I believe, result in less polarization in politics, less war throughout the world, less poisoning of our own den, substantially improved quality of life and actual progression to realize our potential.