Government Collapse, Aristocracy of Wealth, Voting Advice Network

This is a letter I sent to a friend of mine, who is having trouble with a mobile home park, and who is finding that other small park owners have been beset with suddenly-imposed, draconian regulations. She wondered if government were "falling apart". I explained how things have come to that point...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

On the government side of things, the meltdown is by Republican design. Their plan has been executed masterfully, so that an aristocracy of wealth is forming, unimpeded by government.

That plan began in the 80's:

• Pour massive funding into state elections (Why? Because state governments set district boundaries.)
  
  
• At the end of the decade, gerrymander every possible district. (Something that has been going on for ages, but for the first time, a coordinated national effort was made to do it by one party.)
   
• Starve the government of cash. (With the seats gained, roll back every possible tax.)

At the point that happens (or happened), the Republican cause is effectively won. Either every possible service is cut back to the point of extinction, or government simply fails for lack of cash.

As for the government, since we couldn't possible de-staff and de-fund the programs people need, the ones that oversee corporate businesses were de-staffed and de-funded, instead:

• The FDA became a rubber stamp for the food industry, depending on data supplied by the industry rather than doing their own studies.
  
  
• The SEC became missing in action, being able to hire only from the bottom 10% of each graduating class, and not many of those.
  
  
• The IRS, finding out that it was too costly to audit the rich (because they fought back with highly-paid tax lawyers and accountants who outgunned the IRS, the same way corporations outgunned the SEC), began doing 90% of their audits on people making less than $50k/year --and finding that in 50% of those cases, they owed the taxpayer a refund. (Result: Even less cash for government, but a higher "close" rate that let government workers keep their jobs.)

I suspect that the same kind of thing has happened in Sacramento and other state governments. Finding it impossible to govern large corporate developments effectively, they've turned their attention to smaller developments that don't have the resources to fight back.

As it happens, I know how to solve the problem. I have simply been too selfishly focused on my own survival to implement the solution.

If I can find development talent who will donate their time or find funding to get the time myself or hire that talent, then I will be able to implement the only possible remedy for the problems that beset our country and our economy:

      A voting advice network that will make lobbyists
      IRRELEVANT to the political process, by making
      money irrelevant to elections.

(Contact me for more info, or see preliminary writeups at http://CitizensAdvisory.org)

BTW: The system would enable true CORPORATE governance, as well--something we haven't had for 50 years.

And with money no longer dominating the equation, we would have a chance to reverse the trend towards a rapidly growing "aristocracy of wealth" that is turning into a repeat of Rome.


Note:
No one minds an "aristocracy" with a flexible membrane--one where people join and leave based on their own performance (also called a "meritocracy"). But with the repeal of the estate tax, we are set to create a hereditary aristocracy that will present a very rigid membrane to future generations.