Posted by
Joseph O'Connell on Thursday, June 04, 2009 11:05:09 PM
No man takes initiative under central planning. If true equality is such that no person's property is greater or lesser in value than that of anyone else, then some serious questions arise which I believe have not been answered.
First off; what are the methods used? Are people given a certain amount of goods and value each week? Year? Decade?
If one man squanders his apportionment he suddenly becomes poor relative to those people who savor their allowance. Is this careless man entitled to another apportionment for parity's sake? How is that equality if he ultimately receives more than everyone else?
And who decides what is worth what to whom? Isn't that relative to each person's own viewpoint and goals?
And if each person is equal, shouldn't each have an equal vote on what is worth what and who should get what (since some items may be more precious to some people than others). How can such votes be tallied without the bias of those counting and measuring the results to be enacted?
Shouldn't each person also work and produce on an identical level to be fair in tasking as well as in reward? Should the man who squandered his allowance be forced to work extra to match the per-item labor costs of his consumption? How could the system be declared fair if he has less than others, but also how could the system be called fair if he has the a second share without effort in conjunction with his receipt of property?
Logistically, there is no way on this Earth to ask each person what they think is fair. Human nature will pollute the results even if it could be technically feasible.
Every person will try to get all they can for themselves and their friends while attempting to reduce their input (production, labor) as much as possible. Each will make the case that they should not be required to input into the system at all.
So, since fairness cannot be achieved through absolutely equal democracy, how can we fairly decide on a council which will always deal perfect equality or even near perfect equality? Is a council not also subject to those human traits of greed which lead to nepotism? And won't every individual who is not on the council claim themselves still dealt the shallowest hand?
History shows us a psychological axiom; the grass is always greener on the other side and no one will be satisfied with what they are given, apportioned by an elite ultra-smart few.
The truth is there is the only way to be really fair and equitable to everyone is to affirm their own right and responsibility for their own goals, actions, and accomplishments. Of course, we humans are fallible, which is why we have government in the first place; to protect us from outside coercion and force and to redress violations of our legal equality between each other. Our Constitutional republican government was designed for these purposes only; to protect against force and provide legal recourse against fraud.
In a society of self-actualized individuals, there is no one to blame for failure but oneself. There is also no one to reap success but oneself and it is far more likely that one (and most) can be successful, when individually unharnessed, because the failure of an individual is limited in its scope and fluid in recovery.
This failure may seem difficult to overcome, faced on an individual level, but when compared to the failure of a central planning bureaucracy which is not subject to replacement, individual failure is far more palatable. This becomes especially more true granting that individuals who have not failed are always there to help those who have. Who helps the government when it thoroughly drops the ball? No entity is capable by power or by funding.
Government has a voracious appetite for power, even in representative government. That is the purpose of representation, to hold power. Those reigns, however, must be steering the government away from that natural desire and it is we, the people, who have held them for all this time. It is not long before the horses will wrest control of those delicate leather straps away from us and run this nation roughshod over a cliff.