| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Exclusive - Elizabeth Warren Extended Interview Pt. 1 | ||||
| ||||
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| Exclusive - Elizabeth Warren Extended Interview Pt. 2 | ||||
| ||||
Please watch the above interview first, before reading this entry.
My question is this: Why blame businessmen and not your elected official?
It seems the 99% movement and politicians, like Elizabeth Warren, have a dilemma on their hands. They believe the answer to all our woes is higher taxes on the private sector. This opinion seems to make sense, at first glance, when you consider the facts they present. They will paint the evil corruption that is money driven lobbying, and how these black souled people have bought out our political system. Facts, such as 30 companies spending more on lobbying than on taxes, or how many of our nation's most profitable companies pay no tax at all, are scare tactics that paint an ugly picture.
Before, taking those ideas too seriously, consider the following points.
1) For the stakeholders of a company, taxes are often doubled, once at the corporate level, and then once at an individual level. When statements are put out that corporations are not paying taxes, the individuals of the company still pay.
2) Those who lobby are paid by corporations to push their agenda in government. They are only able to push those agendas with the help of politicians. We, as US citizens, vote for these politicians. We do not vote for these businessmen. Warren argues that we need to fix this problem by voting in more ethical politicians. The 99% takes this even further, by wishing to create additional laws that would stop lobbyist. Yet, both of these people/groups fail to realize the paradigm they support. Where are the ethical officers who are going to create these laws and not take lobbyist money? Are there truly individuals who as a mass group, once put into office, will not succumb to the pressure of the lobbyist appeal? It will take a majority of these ethicist to replace the broken system we currently have. It would be wonderful if this were possible, but is it reality? More likely, the corruption would continue, as the lobbyst would still have their money to push their agenda. These new official would make a couple bright moves at first, but then be consumed by the serpent snake of lobbyist. The notion to fix bad government with more government leaves even more people to be bought out by corporations. It is a symptomatic response to a deeper cause.
These new politicians and laws would be the heart medication of obese, sedentary, more dieted, individuals. Is the problem the heart or the lifestyle of the individual? Is the problem the people in government or the organization/size of government itself?
What to do?
Jon Stewart plays devil's advocate in pointing out the growing proportion of Us citizens eying on more Ron Paul solution to this mess. Instead of risking the continual, symptomatic human habit of corruption, maybe the answer is to remove the cause agent. This cause agent is the position from which decisions are made. By eliminating federal government positions and following the enumerated power of the constitution, lobbyist would have a much harder time influencing national interest. They would need to lobby in 50 states governments vs one central government.
Maybe the answer is a mix of both, new laws against lobbying and a smaller federal government.
No comments:
Post a Comment