Over the past several years I have become worried that our American Democracy seems to be broken. Political divisions are becoming more and more prevalent. Money seems to matter more than votes. and the people I associate with seem to feel that something is wrong. Are we losing control over our democracy? Let's look at this question.
This question does not appear to be new. In fact, it may have been predicted by Prof. Alexander Fraser Tyler (1747-1813) when he wrote the "Cycle of Democracy" way back in 1776 . Basically, the cycle concludes that democracy can only persist until the citizens discover that they can vote for themselves benefits from the public treasury. After that they tend to vote only for things that benefit themselves and the democracy collapses fiscally until it is replaced by a dictatorship.
So, where are we now in this cycle? Is our democracy in trouble? Lets examine the cycle step by step.
1) Bondage. We fled Europe and came to America because we didn't want religious persecution. In the early 1700's America was essentially in bondage to the British government. Jonathan Edwards around this time led the Great Awakening in which the colonies experienced the conviction that God was more important than man.
2) Spiritual Faith and Courage. The founding fathers had deeply held principles for which they were willing to lay down their lives. This led to the courage to face the tyranny and oppression of Britain and fight the Revolutionary war revolting against the 2% tax imposed by the King. Image that, only 2% whereby today we have much more than that imposed by our own government.
4) Liberty. By winning the war , the colonists were able to gain their freedom and Liberty. A key principle in our Constitution was the concept of "Liberty" and the "Rule of Law".
5) Abundance. Having Liberty allowed the colonists to grow and grow developing their economy, improving their lives and creating great abundance. American ingenuity and innovation brought an end to WWII and made America the wealthiest and strongest nation in the world. With that abundance came selfishness, greed and all the vices that come with it.
6) Selfishness and Complacency. Abundance leads to selfishness and feelings of entitlement and complacency. When your wallet becomes thick and fat and everything is abundant, you become selfish in desiring your share of the abundance. So long as your wants are fulfilled, you become complacent and don't pay attention to the government and others. This leads to apathy.
7) Apathy. So long as there is abundance, society tends to surrender to personal fulfillment and allows government to pursue its own agenda; obtaining its own perks rather than serving the people and catering to money lobbyists and special interest groups.
9) Dependency. With abundance we become dependent upon having "things". This leads to spending too much money to acquire them. When you spend too much money you eventually stop caring. You stop looking to the future and live only for the day. Many Americans looked to the government as being the ultimate source for welfare, health care, social security, etc. But the government has nothing to give that it doesn't first acquire through taxes. Personal liberty and freedom have been given over to Big Brother. Many Americans don't even know what freedoms they have lost because the schools no longer teach them. It's easy to lose what we don't know we have.
10) Bondage. The U.S. Government, no - We The People, are in debt to the tune of $30.6 Trillion dollars. The share of this debt is about $91,800 per citizen. Add this to our personal debts and we find ourselves in bondage to the debt collectors. We all know that something is not right. Our leaders make promises that they cannot fulfill. Dependency on government is a form of slavery. Slaves can never perform the functions of free men and women.
I think that everyone might agree that America is entering this last step in the cycle. We are moving ourselves into bondage.
This is nothing new!
We only need to look at history to find that this is not the first democracy to fail. The origins of the Welfare State may well have been in the time of Clodius (93 bc - 52 bc).
Clodius was a disruptive politician, head of a group of political thugs and a bitter enemy of Cicero. Clodius did something that changed the political world forever. He devised a tool to gain political power by promising free grain in exchange for votes. How is this any different than the modern scheme of giving food stamps, welfare, discounted insurance, and many other perks to the citizens?
Eventually, 33% of everyone in Rome received public relief in the form of grain and other perks. This led Roman society to erode from within. The military became over extended (at enormous cost), the borders of the empire could not be controlled, the currency was devalued to pay off debts, and the bureaucracy lived as parasites of their Roman constituents. Doesn't this sound familiar to modern Americans?
The collapse of the Roman welfare state resulted in civil wars where factions competed to gain control of the huge state apparatus and its public loot. There was a huge bureaucracy, mass corruption, high taxes, and burdensome regulations. Businesses were called upon to support the growing number of public parasites. Think of this in the context of the "Citizens United" decision by the Supreme Court.
The absence of character produces chaos and tyranny. The Romans turned down a fateful and destructive path when they abandoned responsibility, self discipline, self-reliance and respect for the property of others and began to use government for their own personal ends. Remember, the government has nothing to give that it doesn't first obtain through taxes and other means.
Pay attention to history
"People will not look forward to prosperity who never look backward to their ancestors"
--Edmond Burke
As with Rome, history shows us that these cycles repeat themselves. Looking at the present, we can see that we are clearly in the "Dependency" stage. We're saying to ourselves, "Give me Social Security. Give me health care. Give me Food stamps. Give me unemployment compensation. Give me cheap prescriptions. Give me this or that," We've become a nation of takers, rather than a nation of givers, workers and producers.
Erosion of a society starts with an absence of character, moral decadence, fiscal irresponsibility, jealousy and greed, lack of respect for others' property, discrimination based on ethnicity, race, gender or class. We've got all that and then some.
The growth of Rome and the growth of America both stem from their massive expansion of individual liberty. Liberty flourishes because of the separation of powers, a system of checks and balances, the rule of law and the protection of the right of most if not all citizens. Indiviidual liberty is needed for a prosperous economy. No society that has lost its moral compass has been able to retain their liberty. Individual liberty is essential for the growth of democracy. The loss of individual liberty ultimately leads to chaos and tyranny.
Fiscal responsibility is important
The current national debt now soars above $30.6 Trillion dollars. According to usdebtclock.org the debt is increasing at therate of more than $24,000 per second. It represents the amount of debt accumulated since 1776 as the result of congress passing bills for defense, entitlement programs, etc. These are bills that have been already passed. We are going to be payng for the decisions congress has made for many years to come. This is really scary.
Entitlements, mandatory payments and interest on the debt account for more than 80% of all federal revenue. It is impossible to balance the federal budget without addressing these items. But, politicians can't do anything because making cuts means losing votes or even being recalled from office.
These numbers are immense. They boggle the mind. And, when they get so large they are hard to comprehend.
There are other factors
There are many factors that affect the economy. One of the scariest is the global fertility rate which has been in steady decline.
In order for growth in the global economy, the fertility rate must be greater than 2.0; i.e. when two parents have two children. If the fertility rate is less than 2.0, the global population will shrink.
This is important because when the rate is below 2.0 it means that the population is aging. That means that there will be more people who are retired and receiving benefits while no longer paying into the system together with the fact that fewer people will be entering the workforce. Its like a Ponzi scheme. If trends continue, the system will collapse because too few people will be left to produce the stuff that keeps the system afloat. We are already seeing these effects within our curent Social Security system.
It is scary to think of how a free and industrious people can lose their character and let their guard down to allow a welfare state to take over. When a self-governing people give their government the power to take from some and give to others, the process will not stop until the bones of the last taxpayer are picked clean.
Devalued currency and inflation
One of the fiscal results of a welfare state is the devaluation of their currency. The massive demands on the government to spend creates pressures for the creation of new money. The result is inflation and devaluation of currency.
The Roman coin, the denarius, was devalued by one emperor after another to pay for the expensive welfare state. This coin once was 94& silver. By 268 AD it was little more than a piece of junk with only 0.02% silver left in it. That's a 99.978% decrease in its value.
How does the modern US Dollar compare with the denarius? Since the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, and since dollars are no longer backed by either gold or silver, the dollar has lost 98% of its purchasing power. Because this has happend over a period of 100 years, the population has been largely unaware of its demise.
Inlation has a direct relationship to the decline of democracy. As price soar from inflation, wages and the prices of essential goods will be unable to keep pace. Those without assets like gold, silver or other tangible goods will be wiped out. With this will become indebtedness and loss of freedom and liberty. Ultimately, this can lead to revolution and the loss of democracy.
When a currency becomes devalued it leads to major trade imbalance. Creditors will become extremely upset when debtor nations (like the United State) could default on their obligations. Consider the ripple effect on global economies when Argentina defaulted in November of 2016 (the ninth default in its history).
All of the signs are there for an imminent collapse of our democracy.
Many of our founding fathers argued against hving any form of government at all. But, they agreed that some government was necessary to avoid chaos. They tried to craft a minimal form of government based on Liberty and a separation of powers between the three branches of government. I believe they would abhor the immense size of our current government.
Sadly, our goverment resembles the Roman welfare state in many ways. It has grown much too big. It has legions of beneficiaries. It is dominated by money interests, parasites and corruption. It has burdensome taxes and cumbersome regulations. It has huge fiscal problems. The citizens themselves have lost their spirit and have become divided and polarized.
Power curently lies in the hands of the few parasites who run the government. It is in their personal interests to keep the population divided. But, ultimate strength is in the hands of We The People. No government can succeed if their citizens unite together and don't want it.
If we want to survive as a free people, we absolutely must come together and stop the political divisiveness. Not only must we do this domestically; but it is necessary for human survival as a species that we do it globally.
We must focus on our common goals; not our differences.
