Systemic issues causing the slow motion collapse of this country

[tangent4ronpaul]

In another thread, "a warning to college profs by a HS teacher", which I suspect few read as it's so long, had this bit that hit the nail on the head:


I tried to help them understand the deleterious impact of policies that were being imposed on our public schools.... the drivers of the policies that are changing our schools—and thus increasingly presenting you with students ever less prepared for postsecondary academic work—are the wealthy corporations that profit from the policies they help define and the think tanks and activist organizations that have learned how to manipulate the levers of power, often to their own financial or ideological advantage.

Many of us are leaving sooner than we had planned because the policies already in effect and those now being implemented mean that we are increasingly restricted in how and what we teach.

We are constantly on the defensive, as well as not well represented. To stop anything takes monumental outrage. Enough to get a congress critter scared that if they piss off their constituents enough they will not win re-election. Few in Congress are actually representing the interests of who they are supposed to - their constituents.

Rather they are representing the wishes of corporations, think tanks and activist organizations, as well as large campaign donors. They have better lobbying access. Can pay bigger bribes and issue endorsements.

A huge problem is corporate person hood and their right to "speech" within government.

WTF??? - explain yourself?

[noneedtoaggress]

Government, as in the State, is a central pillar of power that virtually everyone clamors to control in order to use in their benefit. You can't escape it if you place that much power in the hands of a single organization. Politicians are simply power brokers for this centralized apparatus of power in society. It's systemic because it's a monopoly which is funded by coercion of the masses (taxation) and it's product is coercion of the masses (statutory law). Individuals acting as agents of this monopoly will increasingly advance it's power as they try to advance in their own individual careers.

Whether an individual is lobbying to use state power on behalf of a corporation, other powerful group, or simply that individual's own interests it's a corruption of law. The purpose of law is the collective defense of the rights of the individual. The purpose of governing institutions is to protect your rights (fundamentally in property). The state is a protection racket, funded by threatening the very people it purports to protect.

This is why it's systemic. It's a coercive monopoly. It's far too much power in the hands of a single organization. As it grows in power it increasingly interferes with the market. Because the market is the foundation of a prosperous society, it will eventually cause enough problems to cause social collapse. All empires fall under the weight of their own power and the inevitable problems it produces.