Self government is a myth Americans live by. Working withing the system is deemed a virtue. Those who work outside the system are extremists and trouble makers. Schools leave students with the impression that democracy is a gentle form of government where we all decide things together and everyone ends up happy. Those who live by myths die by the hands of the myths they live by.
The right to vote has great potential but not the way it is exercised today. Since the beginning in 1776, Common Sense Economics has not found one case where Americans went to their representatives with an idea and the representatives acted on that idea for the benefit of constituents. Surely, on a local level a handful of exceptions may be found. Common Sense Economics is still looking. On a national level, there has been nothing close.
Successful political initiatives have always been sold from the top down. The job of congress has been to sell the public on ideas, not to implement ideas from the bottom up. Still Americans are convinced they are in control of government and that by voting they have done their duty.
Slowly your right to vote has been converted into a pacifier like those that are stuck in a baby’s mouth to keep it quiet. The right to control public opinion long ago surpassed the right of suffrage as the most productive tool for making changes in government. On a national level the Republican National Committee and the Democratic National Committee ostensibly serve the public but in reality are deal-making services the elite of the world use to rig markets, capture customers and promote causes from which they benefit. Rank and file members of each party act as servants to the elite. Their only rewards are feeling good about themselves and maintaining a high status among peers.
This is the general situation voters face in Tuesday’s elections. Common Sense Economics has two hopes. 1.) Out of frustration, citizens might vote out a large number of incumbents. 2.) After the elections frustration will be high enough, that citizens start working outside of government to accomplish their goals. The sixties and seventies were times where protests and other unorthodox methods were employed with great success. Not all changes were good but working within the system would have caused no changes at all.
Common Sense Economics knows that behavior in the political arena is governed by instinct rather than reason. Democracy is a young development along history’s long time line. People are hard wired to serve kings and treat political candidates as potential messiahs. In the meantime aspiring messiahs are governed by self interest, the same as everyone else. Elected representatives end up serving those who best assist them in gaining power and achieving personal goals and aspirations.
Common Sense Economics knows that true self government is at least 1000 years away. In the meantime it is hoped that the few who truly value freedom will vote as usual but begin looking for other avenues for imposing freedom on others. Few stop to realize that our founding fathers were very few in number and literally crammed freedom down the throats of everyone else. No more than 30% of the population was ever in favor of independence. As Common Sense Economics has explained, people are instinctively driven to trade freedom for comfort. The few who rise above that instinct must be successful in forcing loberty on everyone else or it won’t happen.
Subprime Neigherhood is a tune Curbside Jimmy wrote back after the financial crisis of 2008. It is still a good tune today.
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