Thursday, March 3, 2011

Tearing us apart from the inside

Anarchists, might sometimes sound amusing at what they say, but the system of government is the scariest of all the systems. Of 195 countries in the world 1 has what could be considered an anarchistic form, and that would be Somalia. Every other nation has the government involved in many things, infrastructure, education, public utilities, public goods, and other things that directly help the People. They currently have been eliminating funding for programs that go directly to the people, education is getting the axed with the saying of "budget" all the while people's incomes are being sucked up by health care more than anywhere else in the world (World Health Organization) and places where actual waste happen are not being targeted. We spend more money on military than any other nation except Israel (which is understandably spending a lot being in a region in complete turmoil and instability) while we are in the safest part of the world. This goes back to my previous previous post "Of, By, and For the Rich" where the rich can buy these "fiscally conservative" tea party members to get billions of tax payer dollars sent to the politically powerful.

But what actually disturbs me about this is that they do not focus a lot of energy into making government more efficient. Every American should look at the US Immigration system which is I hope the most convolved part of the law. Also, why does the tax code have to be 16000 pages long? That seems bloated and if it were simplified by removing the lobbyists' sections the government would not have a deficit and everyone's taxes could go down, stimulating the economy, and decreasing the amount of bookkeeping necessary to keep the government running. If they really were proponents of small government they would have this on their platform. They don't which tells me that this isn't what they are concerned about. They then must be the lobbyists' best friend.

One idea I have is that Social Security should not be mandatory. Many people do not want the paychecks. If they do not want the help they should not be forced to have it. It should be a voluntary basis though because some seniors live on social security paychecks and they keep them from being a burden on their families. Those seniors' families benefit greatly by the paychecks for their years of work and the seniors live better lives.

Also, on welfare, there is a lot of waste in the system. Many people get their welfare checks and spend it on things that should not be covered, such as big luxuries, cigarettes, drugs, and other things that should not be covered. Welfare should be designed to give people enough money to live when they are down on their luck so that they can recuperate from an injury, or some other condition. Welfare should be designed so they can buy things that they need and other things that give them the information they need to stay on top of the news. Things like food, newspapers, internet, cable, books, toiletries, pet supplies, fuel, basic insurance, and inexpensive electronics so that they can stay on top of current events and developments, but do not buy luxuries that they wouldn't afford otherwise. It should be seen as an intermediate step and they should spend their welfare dollars on a debit card. They should be allowed only $100 of cash from the debit card and an upper limit of the current cost of living so that they cannot overspend or purchase things that are not necessary. This would eliminate the waste that happens saving billions of dollars that are wasted.

Education should not be cut. Education is the one part of government services where I do not see any real waste because, excluding teacher's salaries, every penny goes directly to maintenance and education. It should be the last to be cut because it is where students should learn the skills necessary to succeed in the modern world. Education should be looked at as the greatest investment of them all because through it our economy becomes stable through our future leaders and professionals, no matter what their career, get the jobs they need to keep our country running. It should train students to be active members in society and know how society works, which it has not been designed to do with the emphasis on testing and the removal of High School Civics several decades ago. The reforms have made the curriculum less preparing for what we are going to need as adults with many concepts, like economics, psychology, and political science being removed to dumb down the curriculum. An attitude change is needed here. Children are brought up by our culture to think that school is a chore and not supposed to be fun. It should be more focused on preparing children for being world citizens than passing tests and going to college. The culture of high school sends students to college who then go on to do careers that do not require college education for their entire lives, which forces up the demand curve for college, making those of us whose careers require advanced degrees have to spend more than we should. Many of the "college-bound students" should go to trade schools. Most programmers for instance should go to trade schools because they are prepared for their careers. Once high school prepares people for the responsibilities of citizenship and adulthood, career training would be all that is required for productivity and full societal participation. This would save society billions of dollars for society and save years of time and tens of thousands of dollars each for many young adults in unnecessary college tuition.
     Also, school districts across the country should get the amount of money that they need to have state of the art equipment, up to date textbooks, up to date school buildings, and an environment that tells students that America cares about their futures. Rural school districts have to scrounge for money to replace out of date equipment all the time while rich school districts get their computers replaced all the time. Every school district should have the same high standard of education that is appropriate for the richest nation in the world. China is still a long ways behind us in GDP.

What they are doing is eliminating the very programs that allow the people who are not rich to not go bankrupt, the same programs that raised the United States from an agrarian nation to a first-world industrialized superpower are being put first for cutting. These things are so ingrained in society that many do not realize the impact these have on our society today. This makes the number of lobbyists fighting for them small, while the corporate interests in the military-industrial complex are very interested at more arms sales, because they get richer.

This would look like corruption but it also shows a purposeful lack of care for what happens in the future and a hatred for government. Some civilizations fall from invaders and some fall from revolution. Others fall from internal vandalism to society's structure. They are destroying American's acts of citizenship through a massive propaganda machine spreading fear through lies, i.e. the so-called death panels. By destroying all of the things that our country is built on they are effectively destroying our country by bringing our society from the level we share with Western Europe to the only country on the face of the planet that does not provide any services for its citizens, Somalia. This is treason and must be stopped.

No comments:

Post a Comment