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POWER BROKERS
The purpose of government is to make the wealthy and influential more so,
Greed, and laziness. These are two dominant features of human nature. Before you protest and begin to enumerate all of humanity's finer qualities, let it be said in defence that greed and laziness in combination have been and continue to be largely responsible for our present level of civilization and general prosperity.
We become prosperous, not by working harder, but by working smarter, by developing techniques, systems and machines which allow us to produce more and better tomorrow with less work than today. Productivity is the key to prosperity. And the drive to increase productivity? Greed, which prompts us to want an ever higher standard and quality of life – more stuff, in modern parlance, and laziness, which prompts us to achieve that higher standard by increasing efficiency rather than overwork.
So far so good. But the desire to get more goodies for less work can take a different direction, prompting us, not to increase productive efficiency, but to appropriate the wealth of others through simple theft, exploitation or deception. This is encouraged and facilitated by basic human inequality; those with superior physical or mental capability and one might say, a lesser sense of morality are tempted to increase their personal wealth by decreasing that of others. And this has held true since the dawn of recorded history.
In early Greek and Roman times the wealthy owned slaves who, with the development of large estates, would become indentures laborers. The Industrial Revolution permitted those with accumulated capital to purchase machinery which could produce the necessities of life from socks to pots and pans much more cheaply than traditional craftsmen who were put out of work, forming a great pool of labor which the factory owners could employ at starvation rates. Today the money-manipulators who, together with big-company executives who can with relatively little effort earn as much in a day as the 'working man' earns in a year or perhaps even a lifetime.
But it goes much deeper than that. Let's go back many centuries, back into the early Middle Ages or even farther, when differences began to multiply. They say 'money makes money' and the same goes for personal wealth and wellbeing. Increasing wealth permits an increasing standard of living, better housing with light, heat and fresh air, better healthcare, better education, these beneficial factors provide yet grate advantage over the poor, living in dark, dank unsanitary slums with insufficient food, no healthcare, no education. Once a class difference takes root, it tends to increase exponentially, the greater the difference, the greater the potential for it to widen yet farther.
Thus over the centuries, wealthy banking, and later industrial families have grown up, exerting power and influence to their own benefit. Of the power-brokers today, some have managed to climb to the top in one lifetime; others come from several generations of power, while yet other ancient and noble families' names go back several centuries.
Where do they exert their power? In their own domains, in their industries… and in government. For the real wielders of power are the puppet-masters, the 'power behind the throne'. Let none believe that 'the people', or even their elected representatives, are the wielders of real power.
Which brings us to another, parallel line of enquiry.
We have already noted that some are more powerful, cunning or forceful than others, and those with superior powers may be tempted to use those powers to subvert and exploit others.. The most extreme forms are theft and physical violence, and it long ago became clear that without some sort of legal framework, to establish security of person and of land tenure, civilization could not and would not evolve. A fundamental principle of law, going back to ancient Greek and Roman times, and fundamental to English Common Law, is that, in the plain and simple language of Thomas Jefferson, 'the purpose of government it to prevent men from injuring one another.' And so it has been.
Throughout the history of politics and government, protection from injury has developed from simple theft and violence to health and safety at work, testing and certification of foodstuffs and so on. Likewise the extent of those covered has also widened. Land and factory workers were given the vote, slavery was abolished, women got to vote, and animal rights have gradually been widened.
And yet there remains one flaw in the system. The purpose of government is to prevent men from injuring one another. But government is largely composed of precisely those with the wealth, power and position which enables them to exploit others.
Looking back at the founding of America, it would not be unreasonable to say that the debates surrounding independence, government and constitution which took place in Philadelphia during the latter half of the 1700s were conducted by some of the most erudite, politically informed and highly principled men in the political history of western civilization. They created, or at least attempted to create, a form of government in which the checks and balances between different branches, in combination with a clear, written Constitution and Bill of Rights would assure for its citizens honest and competent government for the rest of time. The essential characteristics of good government, that it should protect from injury while conducting its affairs honestly and without waste in his simple statement, were summarized by Thomas Jefferson 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".
A fine ideal.
Yet today, two-hundred-plus years later, faith in the honesty and competence of government has reached rock bottom, and there is an ever-increasing awareness that government is run by and for the 'in-crowd', those well entrenched political families, the big business leaders especially in the banking, armaments and pharmaceutical trades, it is they who influence the course of law and of government expenditures. And money has become the major preoccupation of politics.
Way back in 1790 government was concerned with making laws. But no longer. Debating and formulating laws is boring; it can safely be left in the hands of the administratively and academically minded. No. The real excitement, the real potential for power-wielding lies with money. These days legislating takes a back seat. The business of government involves taking as much money from the citizens as it can get away with, using all its arts of concealment and deception in so doing, then handing it back to the benefit of the power-brokers who finance electoral campaigns.
The purpose of government is to make the wealthy and influential more so, even if it ruins a nation in the process.
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