"This is the myth of Government as ... the all wise or all good ENTITY, as if those people knew better what our money ought to be spent on. They don't. Bureaucrats and politicians spend money according to their agenda. There is no such thing as the public interest aside from those the Founders identified, to protect our basic rights" - Tibor Machan on BookTv, Cspan2, 05-1-11
Endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness - Declaration of Independence - Thomas Jefferson
We, our children and the generations yet to come have a basic right to clean water. We have a basic right to clean air. We have a basic right to have our LIVES protected from products that cause bodily harm or death, whether by
poisons that cause cancer or by other means. These are basic rights. I have a basic free speech right to protest using the children of this nation as cannon fodder to protect the self-interest of corporations who do business with tyrannical regimes. The protection of the ecosystem and wildlife is the protection of our basic rights and our children's rights; The right to LIFE. Wealth does NOT endow the right to deprive the citizens of this nation, nor the 'generations to come', of these basic rights, nor to assume, wrongly, that money gives special privileges in the halls of our legislature to undermine our protections for these basic rights.
Some conservatives seem to believe that Corporations and Business people are angels and the government is the devil.
Some liberals seem to believe that government is the angel and corporations are the devil.
I believe that people, both in corporations and government, can act to the 'better angels of their natures," as Abraham Lincoln said, but that we require both LIMITED government and REGULATIONS to limit corporations, because NONE of us are angels, but simply human, and even in the best circumstances, will take actions that harm others, believing our own good in that moment to be paramount. Human beings still often seek their own good at the cost of the good of others. Neither wealth nor poverty is a determining factor of a person's morality or lack thereof.
Consider:
'What is one little oil spill here and there. What harm not testing a drug fully if the initial results look good? We need to rush it to market before the competition gets the lead on us. We ran out of one of the ingredients to make dry wall, there's some stuff over there in the lot next door; let's just use that. We don't have to worry about the hugely inflated prices of homes and their imminent collapse and effect on even those who don't own homes, because we've developed securities to pass on the entire Risk to investors and we have to keep selling, that's our job."
Evil? NO, human.
The little decisions, in the absence of oversight, add up to huge wrongs.
Case in point is the earthquakes in Haiti and Chile, 7.0 and 8.8 respectively, but Haiti's earthquake produced significantly greater material damage and death, an estimated 316,000 dead, 300,000 injured, nearly 1 million homeless, versus an estimated 562 dead in Chile . The reason? Government Regulation. Haiti's housing codes were less stringent and mostly unenforced. Clearly a case for the right to LIFE.
But finally, under current law, corporations aren't even answerable to their investors. So, who owns them??? This is very clear from executive salaries that are unconnected to a company's profits. The executives, who then feel they are bound to produce according to the numbers published in the stock exchange?? Re-establish investor Rights.
EARMARKS - The age of earmark must come to an end. I can no longer see the rationale in continuing to allow them in any form. Federal roads and infrastructure expense can be a set budget allocated to states according to population and set to inflation. Emergency funds could be a budgeted allocation for catastrophic events. A ban for earmarks seems to me an especially necessary step moving forward. Their relatively small impact on the overall budget does not diminish their huge impact on shaking the faith of the citizenry in government, and consequently their faith in the value of ethical and moral conduct for the better functioning of society.
So what are we going to do about this???
The problem isn't the middle class. As some conservatives point out when recommending tax cuts for the wealthy, they make hardly any difference to the moneys that fund government, because it's mostly the middle class that funds government.
On taxation without representation, simply by the millions in lobbying that corporations pour into Congress to
represent their interest, this would and does demand a higher tax burden. I would propose a flat tax across the board, with only a tax credit for charities and children, as they are a resource to the nation, and no other loopholes, subsidies, or tax breaks, not even for capital gains. And an additional lobbying tax on all corporations equal to
double the expense they report on their returns for lobbying. That would give corporations an incentive to work to reduce taxes for all citizens. This is just a thought, off the cuff, in the interest of fomenting a dialogue.
The individuals of this nation feel under seige from the large corporations poring money to buy off the Congress and prevent and pervert necesary regulation and demand for themselves subsidies and tax-free rides at the expense of other tax payers.
- "Coercion is using unprovoked force on people, ones who haven’t violated the rights of others. If you believe it is your moral duty or responsibility to rob Peter so as to help out Paul, that will not fly. " - Tibor Machan April 14, On Demeaning A Straw Men, http://tiborrmachan.blogspot.com/
When the dialogue in the public sphere is on the cost that the poor and those who supposedly choose not to work impose on the rest of society and this is termed theft, then it is necessary and just that the public sphere also express the costs and thefts imposed on that society by false and misleading statements by corporations and by their efforts to buy our government and subvert regulations. And it is disingenuous to then whine that the middle class is engaging in class warfare.
- "Libertarians do hold that the right to individual liberty across the board is the prime political value but by no means the prime value. Politics for libertarians can be thoroughly derivative, meant mainly to secure the possibility for a full moral or ethical life. Why be free? Mainly to be able to choose right from wrong, that’s why. " Tibor Machan, April 14,2011, On Demeaning A Straw Men, http://tiborrmachan.blogspot.com/
Seeking that government protect our rights to LIFE and pass laws that protect us from those who would through false and misleading information deprive us of life, health, monies, and property is a moral activity of a free people. Equally, seeking that government establish balanced budgets and not pass on a debt burden to our heirs is also a moral and ethical choice.
I spoke to a nice Colombian lady while waiting in line yesterday. She was buying two lovely dresses for what looked like a 3 year old. She told me that they were for her friend’s daughters. She was shipping them to Colombia. I asked after her children. She had no living children. Her son had died. Her friend’s and family’s children, those were her children now.
The children of this nation are our shared legacy to the future. The laws we enact and the blessing they bring to the many generations to come, this is our legacy. Those will be our children and grandchildren, generation upon generation. The founding fathers and the legislation they wrote and the ideals they upheld spoke to me when I was a child. Inspired me. Changed me. If in anything I add today to this nation, it is the fruit of their labors giving flower.
The founding fathers and I both share and are children of a Christian tradition that inspired us. The Good Book speaks of Justice, faith, and shared responsibility for the welfare of the community and the future. Still today it inspires me and gives me strength and
conviction that the future will be a bright garden of Life and laughter blessed by liberty, that
we only need to reach for that future to make it so. The Founders reached for it all and filled us with blessings.Can we do less?
“ The mountains shall drip wine, and all the hills shall wave with grain” Amos 9:13
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