U.S. Government: How It SHOULD Work

Could someone help me out, here?

How in the world SHOULD our government work?

 

There are large libraries and entire degree programs devoted to answering that question, and it's been studied for generations. Your question is rather open, but but what comes to mind for me is this...

Due to our population of several hundred million citizens (and millions of other economic/cultural/other entities) with conflicting interests abounding in extremely complex inter-woven ways, government is certain to be littered heavily with human fault even at its best. But as Alan Greenspan recently pointed out, the private companies and corporations of America simply cannot be trusted- not even to look out for their own best financial interests, and that endangers the health, wealth, safety, and even lives of countless people and societies. So even to keep a technological society functioning in anything resembling an ethical manner, strong regulation and a strong central government is required for this and a few hundred thousand other reasons.





/Honk if you want me to back into you

 

Precisely my point ~ i don't want to have to go back to school for a couple of years just to get a handle on how our gov should work.

That's why, instead of just Googling it, i came to folks i could trust for the low down. Also, i figured that y'all would be able to explain it, in lay-man's terms , rather than the stilted ostentation of a formal classroom.

In other words, i'm (personally) not that interested in the minutia ~

i'd just like to have some sort of understanding about what they SHOULD be doing,

who, exactly, is falling down on the job,

and how we, as citizens, can try to correct the problems.

And, of course, there's the "Quality Thread" recommendation,
and i thought maybe this was a subject that we could stay On Topic about.
Hey! Just doing my part! :rofl:

 

A good place to start is to actually read the US Constitution and Amendements. Unlike laws that they pass, the Constitution is actually easy to read and understand and is not very long.

You can read it for free here, or many other places online: http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/constitution.overview.html You should also be able to find it at any library and in any US history book.

 

Pretty ironic statement there, coming from somebody like Greenspan, the former frontman for perhaps the biggest private corporation in America.

 

Fy

Are you interested or just pulling our collective chain?

I ask because…well how do I put this…you’re posts seem more about ranting and bitching (and not reading what’s been said in peoples posts or replies).

And that bit about asking people you trust therefore seems a bit of a joke.

*

Anyway how should the US government work?

Do you mean, in theory or how was it intended to work or are you asking how people would like to see the US government to work?

In theory it was meant to be a balancing act of checks and regulations between the executive, legislative and judicial branches, and was presented as a government of the people and for the people.

The thing is that I think it was intended to protect the interest of the white property owning classes and is therefore not surprising that it has done so and recently evolved into a system that protects the interests of wealth.

So to me to get a government that truly works for all the people the first thing to do is rip up the present US Constitution and draft a new one written with that more in purpose.

 

I say going back to the Articles of Confederation would be a good start. If the government was complaining that it didn't have enough power, then that sounds like it must have been a pretty decent document.

 

That is bordering on a personal insult...

Any government should operate with one thing in mind, allowing HAPPINESS, PEACE, and PROSPERITY to be the driving forces behind their entire agenda. Anything else becomes just rules and regs which detract from these things.

Even the Constitution, which was fairly straightforward, is open for debate. (The gun thing for one) Too many people trying too hard to manipulate things to suit their own interests is what we have. Our present form of government breeds selfishness.

Government SHOULD consist of people who are totally above reproach, totally "sane" and rational, who put the masses HAPPINESS above their petty opinions. Joy SHOULD be the goal.

Governments SHOULD be small and local, CARING FOR the citizens in their areas depending on the needs of the area. Not huge and all-encompassing, thus turning everyone into a case number and leaving no room for individuality.

Obviously, we are so far from this ideal that all we can do is argue about what someone wrote over a hundred years ago.... Most humans are shmucks.
When humanity decided to let a handful of politicians and lawmakers decide everything for them, they became nothing more than subjects and victims.

 

Well we should start by getting rid of the electoral college for starters.

 

Hillbilly

What’s bravo about it?

I mean earthmother comes out with these rambling rants all the time but I’ve given up on them because she refuses to discuss them let alone defend them. So there seems little point.

Can you actually defend this diatribe?

 

So should the question be – what is the purpose of government?

or

What is the best form of government?

 

Christian anarchism sounds about right

Everyone is looking for these magic policies to get us to where want to be. When what is really required is for people to embrace behaviors that are conducive to society, technology, and environment.

We can use policies to try to maintain the chaos, but in the end, policies won't save us. It'll take a change in behaviors, and we can start by teaching people important ethical values very early on in life and to do the best we can to encourage these behaviors -- Think about how many people in the world that lack identity.

It might be a bit naive and childish to believe that this could happen, but that's just what makes sense in the end. We want a good life without ever having to change ourselves. If you want to talk about naive, then there you go. We want to prosper without any personal improvement, personal sacrifice, or humility.

Policies, systems of governance, for now, but none of that will ever save us: It will only act as a safety net

 

i do take that as a little "poke" of insult~ation, but you know what Balbus?

i trust YOU, too.

i trust folks that i can tell where they're coming from, that are up-front about their opinions and free with their facts,

and that includes you, pal!

(Also, i'm not really sure what posts you're referring to, about me ranting, but if that was the way you took my posts, that's fine. tbh, i sometimes think that about your posts, too! lol)

And, no, i'm not jerking your chain ~ i'd like to know about it, but i don't want to have to go back to school ~ a "quick fix," as it were.

Also:

Maybe i'm not the only one who doesn't have a good grasp of what it is all about, so a bunch of folks might benefit from a discussion about it;

it's a subject with a narrow focus, which should make it easy to stay On Topic;

the truly knowledgeable amongst us will have an opportunity to shine in an Intelligent Discussion (and i figured that it would necessarily include YOU, as an intelligent discusser, as well as the Mod of this forum);

and the subject is practically inexhaustable, since we can talk about how it SHOULD be, how it COULD be, and how it actually IS, right now.

So...

if we could save the "You're full of shit!" posts, at least until the other guy says something ridiculous,

well, it might prove more inviting to any Newbies that happen into the thread.

Deal? :sifone:

 

Btw Balbus, may I ask to see you answer the questions that you asked us?

What do you think is the best form of government?

 

The purpose of government? To foster the right conditions in order to create an optimum environment for peoples happiness and well-being. Not a nanny or big brother. That is the entire problem with the way things are. People spend their childhood lives being told what to do and not do. When they are 15 or 16, instead of being ALLOWED to grow up and given PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY, they are still told what to do. As adults, there are thousands of laws designed to tell us what to do. In all of this, people do not get to learn how to be responsible for themselves. They think it's better to tell others what to do, or be told what to do, because after all, that's how it's DONE!

A proper government would set an environment conducive to encouraging personal responsibility.
Then they could set about doing REAL and POSITIVE things like helping to create good schools, good hospitals, good mental health treatment, good drug and alcohol programs, broad ranging social programs.....

In other words, government should exist solely with the good of all citizens at the forefront, allowing PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY to grow, which in turn would make everyone a lot happier and saner, and the jail population would shrink considerably...

 

def

So how do you impose this behaviour?

What you are suggesting is what religions have claimed to be attempting for thousands of years.

WITHOUT SUCCESS

In fact the very opposite of good will to all people has been achieved.

 

Earth,

While your stuff sounds nice and simple and everything - the reason for that is that it is simplistic and naive.

For example –

Sounds so lovely but how?

For a start where does the money come from?

The problem is that your posts throw up more questions than they answer and when I ask you about them you seem to take the hump and refuse a debate.

 

My views are on show right across the forum you can just look.

Anyway I’m a happy leftie.

The things I favour at this moment are –

Representative democracy

Proportional representation

A parliamentary system

Keynesian economics (geared to a green agenda)

A written constitution (that is re-written every fifty years)

Progressive taxation

Strong, international (and democratic) institutions to manage globalisation on more equitable lines.

I’ve written about all of them and will probably again.

 

You think too hard and worry too much. Open your mind and your eyes.

OBVIOUSLY, if they stopped spending so much money on laws and jails and cops and basically all the negative crap that does not work anyhow, and if people started actually feeling GOOD about things for a change, there would be more money to use for the good. It's like dominoes, baby. If folks were happier with how things worked, they'd be happier to pay their taxes...
Maybe we could even get our roads fixed.