Constitution-and-the-laws-of-decline

=**The American Constitution and the Five Laws of Decline**=

English Prime Minister William Gladstone said the U.S. Constitution was the greatest document ever created by mankind. The Founding Fathers built the Constitution's principles on their Anglo-Saxon heritage that came over from England. Many ideals came from the English Civil War against King Charles I. The king needed money and went to the Tower of England where he said he was going to requisition the gold to use to fight those against him. He had to get Parliament's permission to borrow the money. There were some checks against his power. This is a key check - that there isn't unlimited funds with unlimited power. The king went to war, lost in the English Civil War, and the Parliament became a stronger power. This matters because many principles came from England.

The Articles of Confederation were meant to be a league of friendship between the independent states. They would aim to cooperate on a lot of things but were sure not to give unlimited funds to any central authority. Those that wanted a stronger central government didn't like the Articles of Confederation. It went to the extreme the opposite way in which there was no ability for the whole nation to raise money to pay the war debt to France or other things. There needs to be at least some access to funds. The U.S. Constitution created a stronger central government but kept states with much power too. It was perfect. So, what is going on today if Gladstone was right?

The five laws of decline explain how every civilization has declined and how America specifically went through these laws. The laws were explained in a previous lesson. There has certainly been a loss of liberty. What were the openings that allowed the laws of decline to creep in? One reason is that slavery was allowed to continue. Perhaps compromising wasn't the right way to go - may the northern states should've allowed the southern states to remain on their own. Ultimately the Civil War was fought that resulted in a major cost in lives and dollars.

Another reason was there were no set limits on taxation. Obviously, there were be people in power who would want more funds and would see taxation as the way. The protective tariff gradually increased over time. It helped the northern manufacturers but hurt the southern agriculture that looked to sell on the international market. Taxes went up on various goods such as whiskey (led to the whiskey rebellion) and others. The Civil War saw the first income tax. It was ruled unconstitutional in 1894, but the door was open to the idea. If taxation isn't limited then the government can have an unlimited supply of funds. The Founding Fathers didn't intend for this to get out of control. Certainly their generation that fought against England wouldn't look for higher or more taxes, but what about generations that followed? The door was left open for higher and more taxes since no limits were set. We have a lot of taxes today at each level.

Another reason was no limits to debt a government can produce. If taxes aren't limited and borrowing isn't limited and leaders could be out of office and leave a debt to the next administration or Congress. If billions and trillions are added to the debt, then obviously someone isn't concerned about the debt. Thomas Jefferson said a generation shouldn't tax the next generation. Jefferson wanted to see war debt (War of 1812) paid off in one generation (19 years) with stiff taxes to send a message that wars should only be fought when necessary since costly and there's a price to pay when there's debt. We don't feel the effects of war in modern decades since we've had increasing debt for decades. If our government can borrow money and have unlimited taxes then such a government has a lot of power.

Put the unlimited taxation with unlimited borrowing along with an unlimited money supply - the Federal Reserve can print money - the government has unlimited funds, which increases government power while the rest of us lose liberty and economic freedom. In the five laws of decline, one of the laws say that a government will do what is easiest - that is print money since government doesn't have to raise taxes on someone and doesn't have to make necessary cuts.

Another reason is that the states didn't have enough power to check the central government. What abilities the states had were lost when the 16th and 17th amendments were passed in 1913 (remember the force shift). States are now subjects of the federal government. So, today the federal government has unlimited ability to tax, unlimited ability to borrow, unlimited ability to print with little the states can do about it. What do you think would happen to government power - increase or decrease? Even when we elect someone who supports these ideals, it is going to take the mood of the entire nation to make change. It's also going to take our elected officials to have the courage to make the tough decisions that can reverse the current of decline and it will take leaders in both parties to work together for the common good.

How do we check the five laws of decline? How do we fix these doors that were left open? Go back to the Articles of Confederation. All 13 states had to agree to increase taxes and that was pretty much impossible especially with Rhode Island refusing any new taxes. The key is to have true checks. When the Constitution was created, they had separation of powers with checks and balances but they were all in the same level. For example, if the president and Congress both benefit with more money through taxes then why would one check the other? The judiciary is a third branch, but is still part of the federal level. The Articles gave no funding to the federal government, which was a problem but with unlimited funding, the pendulum swings the complete opposite direction. Perhaps the states and local governments should have a check on the taxation and borrowing levels of the federal level. Perhaps debt should need to be paid in one generation. As a historical rule, power will consolidate. If a power has unlimited ability to tax, that power will definitely use that unlimited power. When the government has unlimited funds, it always finds something new to spend on, which increases more government-reliance.

America grew in three phases. The first phase was under the Articles of Confederation. This period saw amazing liberty. There were problems though as chaos was forming and the states were conflicted with other states over trade and territory. There were definite changes needed. The founders wrote the Constitution, but did unintentionally leave the door open for unlimited taxation, borrowing, and debt. The states did, however, maintain much power over the federal level though in terms of money and federal lawmaking since the states chose the U.S. senators. The second phase is the American republic. The states had power to check to an extent The debt was down to $32,000 in the 1840s. Then, the Civil War was fought and changed a lot. There was a lot of good change and the war became necessary to preserve the Union and abolish slavery. However, other problems were surfacing. Wars are expensive and therefore to pay for the war there had to be borrowing and even printing money. The Greenback movement started and favored printing money. This (along with the movement at the end of the 1800s to coin silver would led to inflation.

Since the U.S. went off the gold standard, the amount of dollars printed has skyrocketed:

Our fractional reserve banking system allows for inflation and the growth of inflation by printing money that isn't backed by anything sound. It's a hidden way for the government to get money from the people without a tax since printing dollars devalues everyone else's dollars. The historical record shows inflation is never good. The third phase was America's movement to empire through the force shift. We're not technically an empire, but power is much more centralized, the government is taxing anything it can and rates don't matter, money is printed in large amounts, the number of people relying on the government for either income or a job has skyrocketed. Today, the highest taxes are today, highest debt, highest centralization of power, and very little check on federal power. We need to returned to the principles of the Founding Fathers and fix the few problems that fixed the five laws of decline by learning from history. The Articles of Confederation was good and checking the growth of government, but it had some weaknesses that needed fixed. It checked the growth of federal power, but the Articles of Confederation has been discredited over history since it did have weaknesses that needed fixed. The greatest times of liberty was when there were true checks on any unlimited power.

It is absolutely necessary to get our banking system under control with inflation. In the 19th century, Lord John Dalberg Acton said "The issue that has swept down the centuries and will have to be fought sooner or later is people versus the banks." This isn't saying banks are bad, but the centralized bank and the fractional banking system has used fiat money to try to create economic booms, but with that comes the busts. Many of the leading economists today are hired by the banks. What would they bite the hand that feeds them? The central banks and the government both benefit from inflating the currency through printing more money.

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