Issue 724 Fixing Democracy 1 November 18, 2015

As we looked at what was wrong with democracy, with respect to America's Republic I thought it might be nice to look at ways to fix it.  So here is part one in this series.

Fix it:  First and foremost let us not say cut things, and the usual methods.  Instead I will discuss methods to change our democracy and explain the context on how they will help do that.  One of those first methods is to eliminate the direct election of Senators as prescribed by the 17th Amendment of the United States Constitution.  You may be thinking that this runs counter to the idea of democracy.  That by not being able to choose your senators via elections defeats the purpose of a democracy.  However, these individual senators abide by mob rule. They will do anything to please the populace that elects them even if it means creating chaos in the country.  These people depend not only on your vote, but special interest groups (lobbyists) to maintain power as it takes money to run an election.  However, going back to the system that had Senators chosen by State legislatures with the ability to recall them when necessary removes lobbyist’s power.  The reason being is the fact that the Senators no longer have the power of the vote as the legislatures will then tell them how to vote (those legislators represent us).  They, as they were intended, were meant to vote in line with what the State legislatures wanted and was in effect a check to prevent the Federal government from gathering too much power and usurping the State's powers under the 10th Amendment.  So no more overbearing federal government overstepping their bounds and less lobbying.

Likewise, we want the same to be said for the House of Representatives.  While the Senators go back to being appointed, the people who are actually meant to represent us in the Federal government cause similar problems due to lobbying and corruption.  So the solution that I think works best is to extend their terms to three years in office as opposed to the current two.  Yes, we let them stay in office an additional year, but they will be limited to a maximum of two terms and those terms in office cannot be consecutive.  So why is this better?  Simple, for one lobbyists will have a harder time manipulating Representatives in the long run due to the limited number of terms allowed and the fact that it makes it harder for incumbents (the guys running for office again after already having served) to win elections due to them not being able to hold consecutive terms.  Therefor lobbyists will have to offer short term bribes that have less impact on the United States economy and less likely to be as corrupting as well.  The reason lobbyists are so effective is due to the sheer number of years some of these congressmen and senators serve in office, but limiting the number of years or removing the reins of power helps to fix that.  At the same time this three year term is set up to insures 1/3 of the House of Representatives is being elected each year.  This means higher turnover and thus fresh blood constantly coming into office while acting as a check against a popular president gone bad.  Think for a moment.  People did not like where President Obama was going with his first term in office and so we had to wait two years to create a counter balance with the other political party (Republicans).  But with 1/3 being elected per year, the power balance shifts yearly with popular support for a good President ushering in more people who think like him/her and unpopular support reducing the President's power by removing his likeminded party members from Congress.  It is another check and balance on the system.

Conclusion:  Both of these solutions have to go together.  They cannot be separated for without the Senators going back to representing the freedom of the States and the individual people in them, then the entire change over for term limits in the House of Representatives becomes an outlet for popular support of the President and thus creates a mob rule scenario.  The Senate is meant to be a check on the House of Representatives to prevent mob rule, not support it by maintaining the current situation with the direct election of senators.  Get it now?  I hope so, or you can always ask me questions via google here or my Facebook page which is under my real name.  Anyway, hope you enjoyed the read.

Issue 723 Failure of our Democracy November 17, 2015

Welcome back.  So we looked at the failure of our market economy so why not our democracy.  Let's begin. (I take inspiration from the Economist and Foreign Affairs)

Issues with our Democracy:  The first issue is that elites have superior access to power and information which is used to protect wealth.  Remember the sugar grower’s example in yesterday's issue?  This is part of that.  Rules in general and access to politicians due to this political clout allow these individuals and businesses to get information first before everyone else.  So what to do here?  Simple, let everyone have access to that information by having government not get in the way.  By having less government involvement it means less chances for government to solidify unfair competition.

Issue two is that we, the ordinary voters do not get angry at our corrupt politicians as we generally do not know that money is being stolen in the first place.  As such we need to get the money out of politics.  No, this does not mean more rules to be enforced however.  It actually means less money being taken from us, the taxpayers.  It means no more pensions or even salaries for politicians, less government as this means less money and as such each level of government focusing on its own responsibilities only.  Smaller government means we can see it better, and even limiting when they can meet and vote helps with this too.

Our other two issues are our fault.  Firstly we have our cognitive rigidities and beliefs.  This can be religion, ideology or just being stubborn.  However, these things prevent social groups from mobilizing because we keep looking at what is different.  In other words we sabotage our ability to organize.  This leads to our other issue.  Different groups have different abilities with respect to actually being able to organize in the first place.  As such minority groups can misportray themselves as the majority in some cases and lead us further down the wrong path.  So what can we do?  Well, we have to start looking at what we all agree on. It is all about uniting behind things one at a time and talking it out to decide what needs to change and how.  Once that is done, then we all get up at once and say never again and perpetuate that.

Conclusion:  I personally always come to the conclusion that less government is best for those in power amplify these problems in our democracy.  We may not need to organize as much if there were less rules turning people who are completely innocent into criminals (victimless crimes).  But alas, this is what we created for ourselves.  So now we struggle to undo the harm we have done to ourselves.

Issue 722 Market Economy Failure November 16, 2015

So what is a market economy and when does it fail?  That is what I will answer today.  Let us begin.

Market Economy:  A market economy is a form of Capitalism.  It allows for the freedom to buy, sell, and produce more goods.  It also creates winners and losers.  However, there being losers is not a bad thing in the least.  The reason being is due to the fact that losers in a market economy are doing something wrong.  Their ideas are either outmoded, too soon, or their business model or how they treat their customers is bad.  As such, they fail and other businesses see this and learn from their mistakes.  Also, those same losers learn from their mistakes as well and may eventually become winners later on.  This is what it means to have innovation and growth in a market economy.  However it can only occur when everyone has equal access to the economic system.

When businesses do not have access to the economic system we lose as consumers and businesses lose as competition is reduced.  This occurs when winners in the economy seek to maintain their position by turning their wealth into political capital.  How does that work you ask?  Well it occurs in two ways.  The first form is when our elected representatives and even the bureaucrats are bribed.  Our other example is when they use their political influence to have the institutions that attempt to control the economy change the rules to favor those who have that political clout.  As such the market for a certain type of good, or favorable conditions will be offered while at the same time closing off any competition.  All this the while shifting the playing field in their favor more and more.  And this is what we call corruption.  Here is a real life example.  Sugar growers are in Florida and Iowa, and these two States in the United States are swing States which can determine the outcome of a Presidential election.  Do you know where this is going?  Well it means that they have a bigger say than sugar growers in other States.  They can use this power to have the rules shifted to favor them.  Just think of all the other industries that exist in politically important States or provide product that cannot be made anywhere else.  This includes defense firms, States with key ports for shipping and similar.  These people get to bribe and manipulate as much as they please even promising cushy jobs to politicians once they retire.  Get it. Good.

Conclusion:  So what can we do?  Simple, get rid of the rules.  Less rules means more freedom as the rules are setup to solidify unfair trade practices.  Then to ensure that we do not return to the status quo, we have to eliminate the people who are bribable.  This means less government. You may have saw where this was going, but government equals corruption.  In order to reduce that corruption you need less government and less rules.  But I will talk more about that in the coming days. In the meantime hope you enjoyed the read.

Pray for Paris

Paris was ruthlessly struck by a coordinated terror attack from what looks to be ISIS.  They have killed over 150 people and some may still be at large.  So I ask for everyone to stand in solidarity with France and to say never again.  It is time to first mourn and then to fight.  Stand with France in the fight against the evil that is ISIS.  May God protect us on this perilous path.

Issue 721 How to make Aid Churches work November 13, 2015

So, we need to get money together to get this aid church idea up and working.    This means salaries if and where needed, money for training and also equipment when and where required.  Now where will all that come from?

Money for the idea:  Well most of the money will be from donations.  It is a church and it is already set up to receive donations in the first place.  Therefore telling parishioners what the money will be going for, they may be more inclined to donate more to help get this running.  Most of that money will initially go toward training for fields in both mental and physical health that require the least amount of education time and logistical support.  So anti-bullying and physical health instructors would be a few of the earliest ones to be set up and working first.  In the meantime the Church can play host to AA and yoga instructors and similar to fill in the gap until the priests themselves can perform such duties.  Additionally, the churches should embrace growing their own food for themselves and parishioners which even may include natural cures.  These can be sold to help support priest training and also stay in theme with providing for the health of the churches proverbial flock.  Other easy things to sell are honey which can be made into wine and even ointments and teas to help fight bacterial infections.   Even providing fishing bait in the form of worms and small fish farms can help as the worms aerate the soil of the gardens (if they are growing any food) and the fish if they die can be used as fertilizer (live ones obviously sold as bait so that people can feed themselves by fishing if need be).  Donations in the form of exercise and medical equipment will also help greatly.  Crutches and wheelchairs alone can help as the church can use such hand me downs to be a medical supply store of sorts to those who are struggling to buy such equipment for their loved ones.   

Ultimately however is for the church to set up its own schools or programs to train priests and parishioners in these fields.  In this instance, the church will remove all the fluff from the courses that you would expect at a college such as liberal arts requirements or credits and focus on the skills exclusively needed to be a professional in the fields of physical and mental health.  The money generated here of course will be further used to support the programs or this can be provided free depending on what the church decides.  Practical training will ensue once the knowledge is obtained in the form of apprenticeships for students and priests.  Basically we usurp the entire college system to train the next generation of Doctors (basic practitioners), nurse practitioners, nutritionists and psychologists.  It may even be able to teach these classes in the churches themselves as seminars so as to eliminate the issue with large scale universities or they can post seminars on-line to also provide the information.  Again, all these specialties and even classes will be broken up between each church so that you get people using multiple churches depending on that churches specialty(s) is.  This avoids overcrowding and backlogs of parishioners coming into the church for these services with the churches being overwhelmed and at the same time prevents one church attempting to steal another church's parishioners away (a major obstacle that keeps some churches from working together).  Ultimately the church's end up as a network to provide free health services and potentially free practical education as well.

Conclusion:  So what do you think?  Will this work?  Well for certain, it will not work if the priests try to convert people to the faith while performing their services with respect to health care.  So no trying to convert people at all.  Besides that, the church needs political will to implement such a change and it of course will take time.  But time is what they seem to have plenty of.  As such we got nothing to lose for trying to give the church (or mosque or temple) another tool to help their parishioners.

Issue 720 Aid Church: Physical November 12, 2015

So we talked about the mental health portion of this concept yesterday. However, I hinted that the physical portion of the idea was not just doctors.  So to satisfy your curiosity, let us begin.

Aid Church:  So like mental health, Priests specialized in different forms of physical health will be divided up between churches, with some specializing in one kind or another.  Yes, doctors in the form of nurse practitioners will be in some to provide basic diagnosis for common problems like bumps and bruises to the cold and the flu.  It will focus primarily on physical exams and inoculations as it takes a lot of infrastructure and expensive equipment for more complex medical care.  As such, that will be only a small portion of aid churches providing that form of care due to expenses (we have to teach a priest to be a doctor so of course just making it free will be difficult).  Therefore the other parts of physical health will be people who specialize in things like nutrition or even yoga and Tai-chi.  Yes, simple things we take for granted health wise.  Real physical health.  Nutritionists will need simple blood testing machines that are becoming cheaper so as to help their patients develop an eating plan for their dietary needs.  Weight loss specialists for those patients that are obese or are suffering from weight related problems will team up with nutritionists and therapists.  Yoga, tai-chi and other soft martial arts and meditative practices will aid in helping people keep their body in shape without mutilating themselves through over exercise.  There may even be room for exercise equipment and physical (recover from injuries) and occupational (develop ways to overcome physical disabilities in work and at home) therapy equipment for physical and occupational therapists to have a role in the physical health portion in these aid churches.  Helping people recover from accidents and for dealing with disabilities is something that can be expensive, but if a priest does it for free, then more people will have access.  The physical health field is wide and even includes studying the movement of the body to aid people in knowing how to prevent injuries to themselves.  Disease prevention and learning how to use medication properly will also be something that is key.  These priests, once they obtain the knowledge and gain the experience needed will be able to pass that knowledge on to their patients and parishioners in the form of free education. As such, the church can become a pseudo college or licensing course for people interested in these fields like yoga instructor, fitness instructor or nutritionist.  Seminars for learning first aid and CPR can also be provided.  All of it dealing with people's physical health and teaching and working with them to maintain that health.

Conclusion:  Like with the previous mental health portion, the biggest issue primarily is educating these priests or rabbi/imam as the case may be.  However it is still free health care by people who give of themselves more than they take.  Priests and their counterparts in other faiths are meant to be teachers, and expanding that to being healers only makes logical sense.  Churches are seeing less and less people because they do not stand for anything, they do not take on the issues, but at least they can still do some good by helping to become a network of people who help people both mentally and physically while they work out what they stand for.  See you tomorrow for part three of this concept, the actual funding for this idea to get it off the ground and how we can work to make health care truly free.

Issue 719 Aid Churches: Mental Health November 11, 2015

I feel health care will just keep getting more and more expensive and everything government does will simply compound the problem.  However, the Churches, and other religious institutions can potentially offer some forms of healthcare for free.  Let us discuss.

Aid Church:  The concept is that Churches or other religious institutions can act as home bases for priests trained as various forms of doctors.  The easiest to get working, with respect to equipment needs, is the psychological field (you need a private room or a common area and maybe a couch, and chairs).  Issues with people trying to overcome mental trauma, or conditions are many and is a field that needs to be expanded (especially with the recent issue of people with violent mental conditions acquiring guns).  So these priests can be trained by the church in mental health.  So we could have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) specialists, substance abuse specialists, couple counselling and even anti-bullying and child psychology specialists.  If the church's' train the priests, the churches can be set up where each church will specialize in one or two of the different psychological issues so as to bring people into the church themselves primarily for treatment without the church being overwhelmed and looking like a hospital.  Churches can circumnavigate some of the laws and restrictions of even getting these "aid" churches up and running.  Mainly, the churches can bypass the issue of America's health care system with people with mental conditions needing to be a danger to themselves and others to get treatment of some form.  Of course this will not work if the church seeks to indoctrinate people.  As such, at all times the priests turned psychologists will seek to empower individuals to fix themselves.

Conclusion:  This is the mental aspect of aid churches.  The idea to create cheap (preferably free) and effective health care for people who need a psychologist and or therapist.  Kids need people to talk to, and PTSD victims need support.  These aid churches can be that support and even advice people how to help their family members who are suffering in some way.  Latter if it expands it can even set up retreats and other activities for people who suffer mentally.  Remember this is the mental portion which just requires priests or rabbis and Imams if you will to be trained in these specialized areas of psychology or even sociology. Training that can be done partly online and partly in classrooms potentially set up by the church itself.  Tomorrow we will add in the physical component to this concept, and I do not just mean doctors.