I think the world can be divided between those who punish and those who do not. Those who refuse to punish generally end up exploited. Those who punish, so long as it is not abusive, generally end up respected.
But the act of being punished, or being certain that if you do something wrong you will get punished, is one of civilization's basic foundations. It's called the Law.
Rule of law is the genetic code of civilization.
Messy, viral, repetative and sometimes redundent, rule of law - in particular precident law - is as vital to human endeavor as our DNA is to our creation. Without law, civil society can not survive.
Yet, too much law can choke a civilization's life as quickly as too little.
A review of the socialist/communist history of regulating of all aspects of human life always reveals the fact that too much central control of civilization is as de-humanizing and vicious as no law whatsoever.
America's unique democracy with its checks and balances reflects our Founding Father's understanding of the importance of staying between too much and too little.
But ever since those progressive geniuses Woodrow Wilson and FDR appeared, the federal government has been hellbent-for-leather at grasping powers that do not belong to the federal column of checks and balances.
Today, yet
another example from the Obama administration, is being enacted.
President Barack Obama is ready to roll out an overhaul of the intricate rules and systems that govern America's troubled financial institutions, proposing the most ambitious revision since the Great Depression.
The goal is to prevent a recurrence of the economic crisis that erupted in the United States and exploded last fall with devastating consequences still reverberating around the world.
Unlike the government's temporary ownership stake in automakers and major financial companies, the regulatory changes set to be announced Wednesday are designed to be permanent[emphasis mine]. They could result in a major realignment of power and authority among government agencies that set the rules for banking, lending and investing and touch American lives through daily transactions, from credit cards to mortgages and mutual funds.
While I am not sure if the permenant aspect of this regulatory change is allowable under the Constitution - I'm sure a lawyer will correct me - I am certain that believing any monetary system (especially a capitalist one) is immune from "economic crisis" displays a naive fascination with false utopian ideals.
The idea is hubris itself and shows an appalling lack of real world experience on the part of Obama and his team.
If Obama (and to a lesser extant Bush and Congress) had let the crisis take its course, the already existing Bankruptcy Courts have plenty of legal means to protect, restructure and reserect or dissolve a company in crisis. We do not need anything run by a central government, particularly a central government run by a nobody, ex-college professor who has never worked a real dayjob in his life.
Republicans prefer that companies be restructured or liquidated in bankruptcy court.
Alabama Rep. Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee, urged lawmakers to reject a regulatory system "that depends on the infallibility of the government regulators, who have so far shown themselves unable to anticipate crisis, let alone prevent them."
In a speech Friday to the Council on Foreign Relations, Summers offered the administration's counterpoint: "Any financial institution that is big enough, interconnected enough or risky enough that its distress necessitates government writing substantial checks, is big enough, risky enough or interconnected enough that it should be some part of the government's responsibility to supervise it on a comprehensive basis."
Rep. Bachus is correct and Summers is wrong.
Nothing is so big that it can not fail. The Roman republic failed, we had chaos, we rebuilt, we had the renaissance, the enlightenment, and the industrial age.
It's called Creative Destruction. When things get too big, they MUST fail.
The biggest trees in the rainforest block sunlight from the smallest plants. But when it "fails" and falls, space, sunlight, and a food source are created for thousands of plants, insects, birds and animals.
If Obama's government is allowed unchecked growth, then everything our Founding Fathers fought for will become unbalanced and the great American Project will fail.
Government must get out of the way, in order for America and Americans to prosper. More regulation is nothing but a power grab that must be fought, else we risk becoming what our ancestors fled - a country of no opportunity.
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