[geeks] 4th Amendment Gone

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Fri, 2 Apr 2004, Michael Schiller wrote:

> Of course there are other problems with the idea. For starters, if
> you're no longer voting in your representatives, then it ceases to be a
> democracy (like it really is now?), so you have to come up with a name
> for this new form of government.

Well, since the US was never a democracy to begin with, how about we
just get rid of that recently-acquired name?  Democracy means "majority
wins" ie: "mob rule".  We have representative government and codified law
to mitigate that.  We're technically a republic.  Here's a useful
definition from dictionary.com:

  republic, n, (2) A political order in which the supreme power lies in
  a body of citizens who are entitled to vote for officers and
  representatives responsible to them.

One of the worst disservices our government (esp. the schools) has laid
upon us is the notion that we are a democracy and that democracy is
good, because that lends validity to the notion of robbing Peter to pay
Paul, such as is the case in our skewed tax system and the notion of
"entitlement"[0] programs that take money from people who have "too
much" money and give it to people with "too little".

I used to be a lot less bitter about that before I spent a year
self-employed.  I was barely making ends meet, and, with under $10k to
show at the end of the year, the tax man came back and wanted nearly $2k
of it.  Ha!  As if!  There I was, busting my ass, NOT being a burden on
society, and because I'm self-employed, I'm assumed to have enough money
left over to pay for people who weren't taking care of business.  If I'd
have been working for a company and making $10k a year, I'd have gotten
almost all my federal witholding back.  If I'd have been a single woman
with a kid working for a company making $10k a year, I'd have gotten it
ALL back plus some "EIC" bullshit from some other working stiff who
didn't have a kid.  If I'd have been single and unemployed with a kid,
I'd have been taking money OUT of the tax system.

A democracy, due to human nature, rewards bad decisions.  Take a poll of
100 computer users.  Ask them if they're entitled to $1k out of Michael
Dell's and Bill Gates' pockets for all the shit they've put up with.
Regardless of what license agreements they've agreed to (specifically
disclaiming responsibility[1]), more than 50% will probably say "yes".
Take a poll of people and ask them if the top 10 richest people in
America have "too much" money.  More than 50% will probably say "yes".

If laws were made that way (as they are in a pure democracy), we'd have
hell on Earth, and we need to turn this train around before we get
there.


[0] OMG but I hate that word.  I think I'M entitled to a fair day's pay
    for a fair day's work.  Unfortunately, I get just under 60% of a
    fair day's pay for a fair day's work so that some unemployed single
    whore with 13 kids can get a fair day's pay for making some really
    bad life decisions.  But, that's another rant altogether.
[1] I don't think those agreements are particualrly ethical, but an
    agreement is an agreement.
-- 
Jonathan Patschke  ) "Being on the Internet is not the same as being
Elgin, TX         (   famous.  That's like calling Cheetos 'dinner'."
USA                )                                    --Metal Steve