The founders crafted a Federal system, with a strong central government, because society under the Articles of Confederation wasn’t working. The Constitution asks the Federal government to provide for THE GENERAL WELFARE and to do lots of other things to secure our safety. People who believe libertarian fantasies about minimal government should move to Somalia and see if they like life there. Government isn’t the problem, corruption is the problem. Politicians and others calling for less government often just want to enrich the rich and allow the corporations free reign.
Without government, we’d be hunter-gatherers. And violence, ignorance, disease and superstition were endemic in such societies. Thanks to government we have education, science, literature, trade, sanitation, laws, commerce, public health initiatives, and the Internet. Government is great!
The problem with government isn’t that it’s too big. The problem is that it’s often corrupted. But the solution is to fix the corruption, not to get rid of government.
See Government is Good and Government is Great! and The General Welfare.
Wow, is this what totalitarian liberals fantasize about?
Your Federal Constitution in one EZ compound sentence:
Article 1 sections 8 and art 4 section 3 clause 2 says what the federal government can do while providing for the general welfare and common defense and article 1 section 9 and the first 10 amendments restrict how they may do it.
BTW Corporations ARE government. They can do nothing the legislature does not provide for. They are creatures of the legislature. They are fascism in action. They are governments being entrepreneurial. Read Hale V Henkel.
Also- Society was working just fine under the AOC-governments weren’t. Do you know and comprehend the difference? Society is intercourse between the people while government is violence upon the people. Common Sense.
What happened to classical liberals that comprehended the limited nature of government? A government of delegated power cannot be totalitarian- read Locke.
Good grief we are lost.
Totalitarian? lol Having regulation, public schools, and national health care isn’t totalitarian. It’s just smart.
Way to be non-responsive Don.
I guess I’m not going to find the intellectual gold mine I was hoping for here. Ahh well… you’ve got a lot of reading to do Don.
Your legal analysis of our situation is wanting, and your historical analysis is about that of a state run high school social studies class.
And you didn’t read my post / comprehend the significance of it, or you wouldn’t have said such a silly thing to me.
Don, of course corporations need to be regulated- they are a creatures of statute- they are government created entities driven only by profit-fascism in action- Add to it, the legislature has exempted their monsters from the necessity of being responsible for the injury they cause, in many cases legalizing amounts of injury citing the greater good theory. – it still escapes you. Sad.
A liberal society (not your totalitarian nonsense) would not allow a government to charter perpetual entrepreneurial entities and then exempt their injurious behavior from responsibility by preempting lawsuits with additional statutes and regulations.
Where have all the liberals gone?
Who charters a corporation? the legislature does. You don’t. A corporation can only do what the legislature allows. It is totally under the jurisdiction of all three branches of government. It is government in our market place. Get it?
This is contrasted with a sole proprietorship / other organizations of natural right.
The american revolution was fought over a similar conflict we are having now. The king granted special privileges to his east india trading company (a giant corporation he had a huge stake in) so he could sell his extra tea in the colonies. He exempted the EITC from the import tax.
The little sole props got angry and threw the tea in the sea, then organized and revolted swearing never again.
Delegated government does not have the power to be entrepreneurial. It does not have the power to exempt people from being held responsible for their injurious actions.
There is one law that all societies adhere without government: Do nothing to injure others. Only totalitarian governments attempt to exercise power beyond the power of their people. And the people do not have the power to exempt a certain privileged few from the injury they cause others.
For too long american government has exercised totalitarian rule over our people- I hope we awake soon.