|
Does the government run the country?
No. It sometimes thinks it does, but it doesn’t.
The country is run by millions of individuals: people who are up at 4am to bake bread and sort the mail, who drive the buses, empty the garbage cans, make sure we have electricity and clean drinking water, scan our groceries at the supermarket checkout, process debit and credit cards... and all the other routine jobs which really run the country.
Does the government run the country?
No. But it can help, by ensuring
* effective infrastructure
* social justice
* and its own productive efficiency.
Regrettably, western governments fail dismally on all three counts.
Hardly surprising that they are held in such low esteem.
And that we all seem to be in deep trouble.
Three areas need urgent attention.
|
|
 |
ONE: Banking Reform
Roads, bridges, piped water, electricity, telecommunications, these and many more constitute vital elements of a nation’s infrastructure. But outweighing them all in importance is a properly functioning monetary system. Our present economic/financial system doesn’t work. It is open to, and frequently subjected to extreme abuse, and it fails to deliver the prosperity of which it is capable. We need to fix it. Financial Reform for Stability and Growth.
First: Separate retail from casino banking. Only retail banking qualifies for taxpayer support.
Then: Establish a network of Industrial Development Banks to create jobs, expand and improve industry, and finance public infrastructure... without adding to the deficit.
|
 |
TWO: Fair Rules – for Peace and Prosperity
Society needs government, law and order to provide protection from robbery, violence, and the excesses of individual power, from dishonesty and deception in commerce and industry, to resolve conflicting demands on the natural resources and to prevent pollution and destruction of the shared environment.
Fair rules for pay and profit would be a start.
Millionaires and Unemployment – income inequality... or income injustice?
A Fair Day’s Pay for a Fair Day’s Work.
|
 |
THREE: Government - transparency, productivity, accountability.
Governments are among the most wasteful, the least productive of any organization yet devised by man. So taxes and debts slide slowly upwards, services remain stagnant or decline, and government departments proliferate. The remedy requires strict, detailed, transparently clear accounting published in detail on the internet so the people who pay the bills know what they’re paying for; the ruthless elimination of any and all projects, departments and expenditures which do not contribute obviously and directly to good governance; then subject what remains to rigorous productivity assessment.
Reforming Government: Transparency, Productivity, Accountability
|
Download the whole package:
Financial Reform for Stability and Growth
Click to download in pdf. 18pp
|
THE ART OF GOOD GOVERNMENT
protection without oppression
|
The need for, and the purpose of government
can be defined by the adverse effects of its absence.
Society needs government, law and order to provide protection from robbery, violence, and the excesses of individual power, from dishonesty and deception in commerce and industry, to resolve conflicting demands on the natural resources and to prevent pollution and destruction of the shared environment.
In short, and in the clear concise language of Thomas Jefferson,
“the purpose of government is to prevent men from injuring one another”.
Jefferson also sought to guard against excessively intrusive and dictatorial government, and to ensure that government fulfils its duties effectively without waste and at minimum cost, summarizing these ideals in his first Inaugural Address given on March 4th, 1801:
“A wise and frugal Government,
which shall restrain men from injuring one another
yet leave them otherwise free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement,
and which shall not take from the mouth of labor the bread it has earned:
this is the sum of good Government necessary to complete the circle of our felicities”.
To prevent men from injuring one another
Without further intrusion of their liberties
To do so productively and cost-effectively
Protection without Oppression:
This is the Art of Good Government.
Protection, Oppression, and Liberty
the Science of Social Justice.
If any man, any woman, or group thereof acquires or is granted arbitrary power over any other or others, this will – not may, but most certainly and surely will – lead to abuse, misuse, corruption and oppression. Governance must be clear in its objectives, precise in its principles, open and accountable in their application.
The Principle that in the individual pursuit of self-improvement and the exercise of liberty, no-one should injure or exploit others, the Principle of Non-Injury, is founded on a Presumption of Liberty. We should all be free to pursue our own aims of self-development and enjoyment provided only that in so doing we do not harm others, or prevent others from doing the same.
With the Principle of Non-Injury as the ultimate motivation and justification for law, Legislators hold no arbitrary or discretionary power. They become Interpreters, applying the Principle in terms of everyday events and actions, and the process of Interpretation becomes clearly delineated and circumscribed.
If there is Injury, there must be Protection. If there is no Injury, then there is neither cause nor justification for the interference of law and the exercise of its power.
Defining injury in the areas of personal liberties, commerce and industry, and the planning and apportionment of natural resources will never be easy given the complexities and conflicting demands of modern life. Only when firm adherence to the Principle is maintained as an over-riding guide in all aspects of legislative debate will issues be satisfactorily resolved.
Where there is Injury, there must be Protection.
Where there is no Injury, there is neither cause nor justification
for the interference of law and the exercise of its power.
PROTECTION WITHOUT OPPRESSION.
The Principle of Non-Injury applied in the three major areas of:
Economics - Prosperity
Economics, Banking and the Principle of Non-Injury.
The Basics and Crises of our Banking System
How it should work, and where it went drastically wrong.
The Four Phases of Capitalism
Private, joint stock, casino, and whiz kid.
Regional Development Banking
for stability and economic growth.
Housing: Affordability and Forecolsure
Stabilizing the property market.
Quality + Productivity = Prosperity
Maximizing quality and productivity: a universal goal.
Millionaires and Unemployment
Our economic system demands a permanent degree of unemployment.
Man cannot live by debt alone.
Government and personal debt: the twin demons which haunt and burden our lives.
Prosperity - Anti-prosperity
We create prosperity in industry, then lose it in non-productive overheads.
Globalization - Localization
Importing is fine, but we need to produce something in exchange.
Environment - Conservation
Lifestyle, transportation, urban and rural planning
for minimal footprint and energy usage.
Personal Liberties - Transparency
All public expenditure accurately displayed on the internet down to the last penny.
An independent Council of Civil Liberties with access to all files and documents.
Government by Principle
The Evolution of Governance
Monarchy to Minority - Left and Right - Government in Decline
The Search for Right Law
Liberty and the Principle of Non-Injury
CONSTITUTION
Ideals of Constitutionalism
The Great Charter of 1215 - England after Magna Carta
Constitution in the New World
Constitutional Government - Constitution: the Supreme Law of the Land.
POLITICAL POWER CHOICES
Which would you choose for a brave new world?
Browse the options and cast your vote.
Roads, bridges, piped water, electricity, telecommunications....
these are vital components of a nation’s infrastructure.
But outweighing them all in importance is a properly functioning monetary system.
Our present economic/financial system doesn’t work.
It is open to, and frequently subjected to extreme abuse,
and fails to provide support for industry and development.
It requires fundamental reform if it is to deliver the prosperity of which it is capable.
FINANCIAL REFORM for STABILITY and GROWTH
A three-step programme for reform.
more articles & comment
No Government, President or Monarch, no institution of Law or Enforcement
should be created or be allowed to exist and to function,
no one should have power over others,
unless and until that power and the conditions of its use
have been fully, clearly and strictly defined.
Governing Government
Financial Reform for Stability, Growth and Prosperity.
Yes it’s possible, and it’s not rocket science.
The Economics of Prosperity
internet arton publications
|
|
