|
The system of government we were given at the start was actually a very good concept. The problem is that the government has slowly and inexorably taken upon itself the responsibility of running more and more of our lives, contrary to the founding fathers' intent (They wanted the government to leave them alone), and that's really the current problem. There are a couple of problems with it that have come along to bite us.
One is that this system is doomed to fail once the populace discovers the ability to use their vote to raid the treasury. Those too lazy to provide for themselves and who feel entitled to have things provided them will always use our kind of system to try to take money from those who have worked and achieved. Further, anytime the government sticks it's nose into something, it will mess it up, and it will be rife with waste, fraud, and abuse (ex: the Medicare program) because large federal beauracracies are by their nature inattentive and unable to maintain order in their programs. Because they have a never-ending supply of money (the answer to a shortage is almost always to raise taxes), they have no reason to be efficient and attentive to the bottom line. They are also self-justifying self-perpetuating and will -only- grow, never diminish. Also, I think the authority to levy taxes needs to be severely curtailed on -all- levels of government, and that decision given back to the voters, as well.
The second... and I guess it's really part of the first, is that the Federal Government was meant to be small and relatively weak. States were supposed to make most decisions for themselves. A return to a "defend the shores and deliver the mail" form of central government would return power to state and local governments, and therefore, closer to the people. Unfunded federal mandates are one of the things that have state budgets in such a tizzy right now. Also, any "federal aid" that comes from the government usually also has some kind of strings attached where the fed wants to control some area of the state's decision-making. I believe this to be counter to the intent of the Constitution.
Finally, a system where the politicians that are in charge of the system can vote themselves more wealth and power is inherently going to be corrupt. Government officials' salaries need to be controlled by votes of the people. When a congressman can raise his own salary and can retire a multi-millionaire after only six years in office (and noone should be able to "retire" from being a congressman. Term limits. I personally don't think the founding fathers would be happy with the concept of a "career" politician.), there is an inherent corruption in the system.
I hope that made some kind of sense. Oh well, there it is.
|