Hypothetical:
An adult gives $1 to a young child.
The only rule: Do not buy candy.
If the child takes the dollar, buys a candy bar, eats it,
and then asks for another $1, how do you respond?
Easy enough: If the child buys the one thing they were told not to buy with the $1, their request
for another $1 will be denied. More than
likely, in order to teach a lasting lesson, the $1 will be withheld for an
extended period of time until the adult is convinced that the child will not
spend the money on candy again.
What would happen if, upon buying candy, the adult simply
repeated the rule, “Do not buy candy,” but gave the child another $1 upon
request? There is a good chance the
child will buy more candy since there didn’t seem to be any real-world repercussion
for their disobedience. The adult could verbally
repeat the rule over and over and over, but if the child keeps receiving a $1
despite breaking the one and only rule of how to spend it, their behavior is
unlikely to change.
“We The People” Are
Powerless
In order for “the people” to wield any measurable power over
the American political machine, we must possess more than the ability to “voice” our disapproval regarding
political decisions.
We The People lack any meaningful rebuff when it comes to
politicians and their behavior. We can
march in designated areas, hold up words that represent our outrage, sign
petitions, etc. etc., but it all amounts to so much noise without any
real-world “teeth” to back it up.
We can say, “Do not buy candy,” as many times as we like, so
long as the child keeps receiving their $1, there is no reason for them to stop
buying candy.
If you are an American citizen and you have a job, up to 40%
of your income is being paid in taxes.
Those tax dollars are being spent in whichever way your elected
politicians deem appropriate. You cannot
legally opt out of paying these taxes, and you cannot attach any rules
regarding how you want your contribution allotted. If you do not believe that a human being
should be tortured under any
circumstances, for example, you cannot withhold any portion of your taxes
because your government actively tortures human beings and does so using money
you have earned.
“We The People” are the parents of our nation. We are supposed to have power over our
elected public servants to ensure that the vast sums of money they have access
to is being used in ways that we philosophically agree with. As parents of our nation, we must have a
method of delivering a real-world repercussion to our “children”. Without it, those children will take advantage of the realization
that all we can do is make a lot of noise while being unable to “withhold the
$1” as a disciplinary action.
Conclusion
Until “We The People” develop a method for withholding money
from our elected officials when they spend it inappropriately, we will forever
be parents lacking the ability to discipline our political “children”. We must find a way to “withhold the $1” to
back up our verbal appeals for sensible political action. If we fail to do this, the responsibility for
our system’s continued exploitation of human beings and our planet is as much
ours as our political leaders.
NOTE: The best
solution is doing away with the $1 outright and replacing money with a
Resource-based economy. However, in
order to bring about such a transition, it is imperative that “the people” take real-world control over how their tax dollars are being spent. More on this later.
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