Social Question

Steve_A's avatar

What is government to you?

Asked by Steve_A (5130points) March 8th, 2010

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPOGzBJfQSo (There is cussing in the video.)

I am a fan of Lewis Black I enjoy his comedy stuff and ran across this video of him by accident. It ended up by a more serious matter to him and got me thinking….If you watch the video it will make more sense.

What is the U.S. government to you?

Do you agree with what he said?

How do you hold the people in those positions more accountable or responsible?

Can we put strict regulations,rules or the like?

At what point did people just blame the government as a scapegoat or term it as something else?

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13 Answers

Just_some_guy's avatar

What is the U.S. government to you?
To me the government is a group of people put into position to keep our way of life as stable and safe as they can.

Do you agree with what he said?
I feel that things that happen at a government level are the consequences of the actions of people in the government. So, I would have to say I agree.

How do you hold the people in those positions more accountable or responsible?
This is tricky. It is entirely possible that the person who screws up never seen it coming. If they blatantly screwed up for personal gain then no doubt they should answer to the laws that are in place to keep such things from happening. The hard part is telling if it was a mistake or was intentional. I would not want to be in the position to decide this, and have no idea were to begin such an investigation.

Can we put strict regulations,rules or the like?
We can have strong repercussions for anyone who attempts to hurt the economy or any facet of American life, but to punish someone who was doing their best and following the rules and laws of their office specially in a elected position would be injustice. If they break the rules then they live with the consequences. Being it is impossible to foresee every possible action that will be taken and the outcomes of those actions I think to make too many rules for officials would simply slow down any attempt at correcting mistakes.

At what point did people just blame the government as a scapegoat or term it as something else?
I think the government as a scapegoat has been happening for a long time. Just the way people say that if the republicans wouldn’t oppose this and that the country would be better. Most of those people even the people putting the ideas out there only have an estimated guess how a bill will work. As soon as something messes up it is the government specially if the screw up was of a persons own political party. The scapegoat to me is usually the president.

davidbetterman's avatar

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are _instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,_—

smokeweedeveryday's avatar

Fuck the system!!..

ETpro's avatar

Oliver Wnndel Holmes, Jr. said that, “Taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society.” Of course, we pay taxes not because wh have too much money laying around and need some way to get rid of it, but because we don’t want to return to the Dark Ages and live, each man on his own, hoping to elude roving bands of thugs who raped and pilaged for a living.

I think that Ronald Reagan did incalcualable harm to the USA by driving several destructive memes into the public consciousness. First, he slashed the top tax rate in more than half. In hos own 8 year term, that trippled the national debt and has since led to the debt soaring to a staggering level, nearly 100% of gross domestic product. And still, the public clamors for further tax cuts for the rich. Who benefits? Only the rich. The poor and middle class have lost economic ground in real, inflation-adjusted dollars, and the wealthiest 1% have vastly increased the amount of the nation’s wealth they hold. If they manage to keep the process going, they will drain the country dry, then leave for nicer neighborhoods.

The other destructive meme is the one that says all government is bad. Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist summed this one up beautifully when he quipped, “I don’t want to abolish government. I simply want to reduce it to the size where I can drag it into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub.” Much of the Tea Party furor over “wicked evil gubment” is nothing but greed—the desire to keep all my money without any thought to whether we really want to go back to the Dark Ages and take our chances against marauding gangs of barbarians..

I hope our electorate can think these things through, and not be deluded by the greed of a few oligarchs who guide right-wing authoritarian leadership. But we may have to actually dismantle government to remember why the Founding Fathers provided for one in the Constitution.

smokeweedeveryday's avatar

@Steve_A Well steve the system is the government and how it works and how they are abusing the power that they hold.

Steve_A's avatar

@smokeweedeveryday

“the system is the government” What is government?

In what ways does it work that you would say, it is abusing the power they hold?

How has that abuse of power affected you?

What can you do about it?

beancrisp's avatar

A necessary evil.

smokeweedeveryday's avatar

What do you think about the illuminati?

davidbetterman's avatar

@smokeweedeveryday Most people think that the Illuminati is not real and simply a dream of conspiracy theorists.
The rest of us know how very real the Illuminati is/are and how the world is in the dire shape it is in because of their desire to destroy all happiness and indeed to destroy the earth itself.
The Illuminati is a group of evil unhappy greedy scum who simply cannot leave well enough alone.

smokeweedeveryday's avatar

@davidbetterman OMG. Finnaly someone who gets me. When i tell people about it they tell me that its a bunch of crap,

davidbetterman's avatar

@smokeweedeveryday
They cannot afford to believe it is real. They might have to change their entire lifestyle.
Don’t forget, most people who say it is a bunch of crap have already given up and joined them… (If you can’t beat them, join them mentality).

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