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Pastimes : Ask John Galt... -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Father Terrence who wrote (3980)	5/29/2006 1:41:18 PM
From: DuckTapeSunroof	Respond to of 4006

Re: "I think that list is more accurate." I don't, although you have some interesting items on your list, too. Some of the items on your list seem to simply be restatements of items already listed by me... while others --- I'd argue --- are problematic or else ill-defined. In my list I said: Stick with what got us to the top of the global heap: Democracy, balance of powers, individual liberty and rule of law, small government, low and fair tax system, avoidance of misbegotten 'foreign adventures' (as our founders referred to them), Capitalism and free markets, etc. Now, your list... and my comments about each item: "Limited democracy" (Interesting... but what do you mean by 'limited'?) "Free republic" (Guess you mean 'Republican form of Democracy'?????? IMO though, 'free' is nearly always a good thing..... :) "Separation of powers" Agreed. That is the most POWERFUL design element in our Constitution responsible for the PRESERVATION of the freedoms granted to us in that document (along with freedom of the Press --- that other ever-important freedom-preserving principle.) Of course, this seems a restatement of what I said with balance of powers. "Individual rights" Yah... a bit of an overlap with my term individual liberty "State rights" One of the other design elements of our Constitution that promotes a balance of powers, Yah. (I'd argue though, that some outgrowths of this principle have crept into our nation's political/governmental design as, and increasingly, DISTORTIONS of Democracy and the 'equality of voting rights'. Specifically what I am referring to is the way voting strength is apportioned in our federal Senate: voters in the SMALLEST of States have MUCH more political power then voters in the most populous of States. I realize that this was designed into our Constitution... but likely the founders never anticipated that population growth would create such a HUGE voting disparity over time.) "Property rights" Implicit in the item on my list Capitalism and free markets. A sub-set of my term. "Limited government authority" A bit vague. (Also very similar to my item small government. Probably I should have said smaller and less intrusive government, which is the term I usually use....) "Government accountability" Aye. Hopefully that comes with Democracy (but not always. :) "No tax on personal income" Assuming you can come up with a BETTER alternative, I'll be on board with that. Absent a better alternative, no. "A strong military used for defense purposes" See the above. A 'strong military' does not come CHEAP. Large standing armies are not CHEAP. Space-based weapons, or even aircraft carriers on Earth, are not CHEAP. :) (Also somewhat reflects my listing - taken straight from the ruminations and cautions of many of our founders, to steer clear of misbegotten 'foreign adventures'. "Free trade" Directly from my list. "No lobbyists" You mean people can't petition their government to get what they want? How the Hell to you enforce THAT (without losing Democracy and freedom in the process?) "Real capitalism (as opposed to government collusion "crony-capitalism")" Yep. In agreement with that. Believe serious REFORM of our massively over-complicated and corrupted tax codes (elimination of special interest loopholes, government's 'thumb' on the economic scales, etc.) could GREATLY HELP in that regard. Get the government out of the business of picking the winners and the losers in our society --- get business back to basing investment decisions on the simple economics of each matter... not on the goal of capturing narrow-based tax gains.