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The federal system in regards to lobbying would change if we followed the constitution as written to allow House of Representatives to grow with census populati

The federal system in regards to lobbying would change if we followed the constitution as written to allow House of Representatives to grow with census population count. And restore the not direct election of Senators. Then remove federal personal income tax. For icing on the cake, shut down the 3rd central bank known as 'Federal Reserve'. This would require a nationwide general strike to show the people are serious. Most people are not serious about anything beyond TV, social media, and more personal debt.

candiddevmike 5y ago
Definitely expand the house, but we should abolish the Senate. It serves no purpose except tyranny of the minority and gridlock.
- Clubber 5y ago
  The senate is supposed to represent the state governments at the federal level, but they stopped doing that with direct elections. It was to prevent large states with a concentration of population (currently like CA, NY, TX, FL) to have too much power over smaller states. Here's some background on the arguments for and against. It's got some partisan hyperbole so try to ignore all that. https://www.theusconstitution.org/news/the-17th-amendment-under-attack/ https://www.theusconstitution.org/news/the-17th-amendment-un...
  - ashtonkem 5y ago
    Honestly, I don’t really care too much about representing the states per se. It’s the people of the nation that the federal government should respond to, not the divisions.
ZoomerCretin 5y ago
>The federal system in regards to lobbying would change if we followed the constitution as written to allow House of Representatives to grow with census population count. Sounds good. >And restore the not direct election of Senators. Then remove federal personal income tax. For icing on the cake, shut down the 3rd central bank known as 'Federal Reserve'. I’m curious to know how any of these policies would be beneficial.
- charwalker 5y ago
  Yeah, that's an odd set of policies to support.
  - landemva 5y ago
    Those 'odd policies' freed this country from the British. People signed their name on the declaration of independence and risked their lives. They succeeded and created a constitution. You may want to skim it sometime. Really started going downhill in 1913 with creation of third central bank of the U.S. and addition of personal income tax.
    - ashtonkem 5y ago
      > Those 'odd policies' freed this country from the British. That’s really not true. Never mind the involvement of the French, the current constitution is the result of the miserable failure of the articles of confederation, which was arguably closer sentiments that drove the revolution. Whether or not the constitution as it exists today reflects the principles that kicked off the revolution was hotly debated by the men that actually fought that revolution. Regardless of the historical claim, I’m fairly skeptical of the idea that what the founding fathers wanted is inherently the best. Yes, it was better than the British monarchy, but that’s a low bar. I’d hope that we can achieve something as a society that’s better than what a bunch of slave holders thought was a neat idea.
- ItsMonkk 5y ago
  I'm not the GP, but I mostly agree. The principles that I suspect we both share are that concentration of power will always result in harms, and the only way to get ourselves out of the mud is diffusion of power. 1. Up until 1913 the Senators were elected by the Representatives. In 1910 the law changed for Representatives to be per 30,000 population, to be static count of Reps. There is now is now 750,000 people per Representative. Because a Representative can not possibly talk to all 750,000, they can not represent them. The supply of their time is limited and that pushes up the supply/demand curve. They lobby for donors and only talk to the richest of the set. If there were 131 Representatives in CA and only they could vote in Senators, the Senators would be beholden to them, and would be required to act on the average behalf. As the distribution is currently to large, this does not happen, and the poorer of the population are ignored and harmed. 2. The only tax that is non-distortionary is a Land Value Tax. All other taxes create distortions and should be eliminted. A Land Value Tax, if implemented, would be sufficient to handle all government spending. The only other tax that should be able to be implemented are Pigovian taxes on negative externalities. 3. The core mandate that the Federal Reserve handles is the management of the money supply. Austrian economic principles state that this is a waste of time, and you can do the same job, perfectly, and with less economic cycles and harm caused, by simply mandating a static monetary velocity. So you can see in both the Taxes and the Federal Reserve example you can work out the exact algorithmic rule that should always be applied, and remove the need for individuals within the government from mucking up the system with their corruptions.
RappingBoomer 5y ago
ok, but the media would stop any general strike using identity politics and or Dem vs GOP polarization already existing...divide et impera...divide and conquer...we are already quite divided...and therefore quite conquered... as long as the media & its corporate advertisers can keep congress and the white house more or less evenly balanced between GOP and Dem over the long term, the people will never catch on that congress is bought and paid for...and 'throwing the bums out' has not worked yet...so it will not likely work in the future... i don't see how any action by the people is going to effect any positive long term change...all we can do is wait for a collapse of the US dollar...as long as the dollar holds its value, the elites can still control everything and keep squeezing us dry... it's gonna get worse before it gets better...maybe a lot worse..
- landemva 5y ago
  USA probably has the least worst currency today, due to gold being centralized in USA during WW2, along with current military spending. Euro will tank before USD. If China plays it right, they can be the financial leader within ten years. 2031.
  - ashtonkem 5y ago
    You missed the real reason USD is so stable; it’s the global reserve currency because everyone is obligated to buy oil with it. I doubt China will be the financial leader. I think they’re basically running their economy as a giant bubble, it’ll be a bad time when it bursts.

candiddevmike 5y ago

Definitely expand the house, but we should abolish the Senate. It serves no purpose except tyranny of the minority and gridlock.

Clubber 5y ago
The senate is supposed to represent the state governments at the federal level, but they stopped doing that with direct elections. It was to prevent large states with a concentration of population (currently like CA, NY, TX, FL) to have too much power over smaller states. Here's some background on the arguments for and against. It's got some partisan hyperbole so try to ignore all that. https://www.theusconstitution.org/news/the-17th-amendment-under-attack/ https://www.theusconstitution.org/news/the-17th-amendment-un...
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  Honestly, I don’t really care too much about representing the states per se. It’s the people of the nation that the federal government should respond to, not the divisions.

ZoomerCretin 5y ago

>The federal system in regards to lobbying would change if we followed the constitution as written to allow House of Representatives to grow with census population count. Sounds good. >And restore the not direct election of Senators. Then remove federal personal income tax. For icing on the cake, shut down the 3rd central bank known as 'Federal Reserve'. I’m curious to know how any of these policies would be beneficial.

charwalker 5y ago
Yeah, that's an odd set of policies to support.
- landemva 5y ago
  Those 'odd policies' freed this country from the British. People signed their name on the declaration of independence and risked their lives. They succeeded and created a constitution. You may want to skim it sometime. Really started going downhill in 1913 with creation of third central bank of the U.S. and addition of personal income tax.
  - ashtonkem 5y ago
    > Those 'odd policies' freed this country from the British. That’s really not true. Never mind the involvement of the French, the current constitution is the result of the miserable failure of the articles of confederation, which was arguably closer sentiments that drove the revolution. Whether or not the constitution as it exists today reflects the principles that kicked off the revolution was hotly debated by the men that actually fought that revolution. Regardless of the historical claim, I’m fairly skeptical of the idea that what the founding fathers wanted is inherently the best. Yes, it was better than the British monarchy, but that’s a low bar. I’d hope that we can achieve something as a society that’s better than what a bunch of slave holders thought was a neat idea.
ItsMonkk 5y ago
I'm not the GP, but I mostly agree. The principles that I suspect we both share are that concentration of power will always result in harms, and the only way to get ourselves out of the mud is diffusion of power. 1. Up until 1913 the Senators were elected by the Representatives. In 1910 the law changed for Representatives to be per 30,000 population, to be static count of Reps. There is now is now 750,000 people per Representative. Because a Representative can not possibly talk to all 750,000, they can not represent them. The supply of their time is limited and that pushes up the supply/demand curve. They lobby for donors and only talk to the richest of the set. If there were 131 Representatives in CA and only they could vote in Senators, the Senators would be beholden to them, and would be required to act on the average behalf. As the distribution is currently to large, this does not happen, and the poorer of the population are ignored and harmed. 2. The only tax that is non-distortionary is a Land Value Tax. All other taxes create distortions and should be eliminted. A Land Value Tax, if implemented, would be sufficient to handle all government spending. The only other tax that should be able to be implemented are Pigovian taxes on negative externalities. 3. The core mandate that the Federal Reserve handles is the management of the money supply. Austrian economic principles state that this is a waste of time, and you can do the same job, perfectly, and with less economic cycles and harm caused, by simply mandating a static monetary velocity. So you can see in both the Taxes and the Federal Reserve example you can work out the exact algorithmic rule that should always be applied, and remove the need for individuals within the government from mucking up the system with their corruptions.

RappingBoomer 5y ago

ok, but the media would stop any general strike using identity politics and or Dem vs GOP polarization already existing...divide et impera...divide and conquer...we are already quite divided...and therefore quite conquered... as long as the media & its corporate advertisers can keep congress and the white house more or less evenly balanced between GOP and Dem over the long term, the people will never catch on that congress is bought and paid for...and 'throwing the bums out' has not worked yet...so it will not likely work in the future... i don't see how any action by the people is going to effect any positive long term change...all we can do is wait for a collapse of the US dollar...as long as the dollar holds its value, the elites can still control everything and keep squeezing us dry... it's gonna get worse before it gets better...maybe a lot worse..

landemva 5y ago
USA probably has the least worst currency today, due to gold being centralized in USA during WW2, along with current military spending. Euro will tank before USD. If China plays it right, they can be the financial leader within ten years. 2031.
- ashtonkem 5y ago
  You missed the real reason USD is so stable; it’s the global reserve currency because everyone is obligated to buy oil with it. I doubt China will be the financial leader. I think they’re basically running their economy as a giant bubble, it’ll be a bad time when it bursts.