What you are about to read is meant to shake you up. It is also meant to explain to you that many things that you have been taught to believe as true, are in fact false.  The truth I am about to address are socio-economic in nature, that as the free market economist Ludwig Von Mises once said, "Economics deals with society's fundamental problems; it concerns everyone and belongs to all. It is the main and proper study of every citizen." As an example we are not a democratic society, we are not a democratic republic nor are we a capitalistic free market society, and I will show you beyond a reasonable doubt that these are just a few examples that you have been taught to believe as true and are not.   Sadly we are going to start out with the most destructive and unbelievable falsehood, that we have a valid “RULE OF LAW”. 

In a recent Federal Appeals Court decision, one of the last straws of liberty was taken away unnoticed by the majority of Citizens of this great nation, which now places our country under the definition of a Fascist Totalitarian State.  Sounds scary but is this author just trying to get your attention or can I really back up what I am claiming. The Federal Court of Appeals ruled that the government does not have to answer questioned posed under a formal Redress of Grievance as enumeration under Article 1 of the Constitution.  A group of questions posed under similar circumstances by our found fathers to King George fostered a small group headed by Thomas Jefferson to write the Declaration of Independence.  King George obviously failed to answer the various questions posed by the Colonial Territories and our forefathers took up arms. Arms sales have continuously accelerated over the last 18 months but this is the worst method of change and should be only our last choice. Our current Government has refused to answer various specific legal questions concerning constitutional issues posed by a group consisting of thousands of individuals known as the We The People Foundation.  The group filed suit to force the government to answer these questions and a Federal  Appeals Court ruled that the government does not have to answer the questions and the Supreme Court would not even hear the case.  The questions dealt with The War Power clauses, the Taxation Clauses, The Money Clauses and what I call Individual Rights and protections Clauses. It is not that I agree with all the positions of the We The People organization but I do believe that We The People should have the right to ask specific questions of government and have them answered either by the Administrative, Legislative or the Judicial branches of our government and I care not which one provides the answers but they must answer our questions.    

 PRELIMINARY STATEMENTS OF THE CASE
 
In spite of Constitutional prohibitions, the Executive branch is taxing the labor of the working men and women of America, forcing companies to withhold that direct tax from the wages and earnings of their workers, and Congress has acquiesced.

In spite of Constitutional prohibitions, the Executive branch has applied the armed forces in hostilities in Iraq without a Congressional declaration of war, taxing the labor of the People to pay for the mischief, and the Congress has acquiesced.

In spite of Constitutional prohibitions, the Executive branch is printing paper money without regard to any stockpile of gold or silver, then selling that paper money to a cartel of private banks for the cost of the ink and paper, then borrowing back that paper money from that cartel with principal equal to the face amount printed on the paper money and at an interest rate determined by the cartel, then taxing the labor of citizens to pay the interest on that "debt," and the Congress has acquiesced.

In spite of Constitutional guarantees, the Executive is collecting its tax on labor through a nationwide campaign of fear, intimidation and coercion and by the use of swarms of armed agents to search and seize the private property of working Americans, and the Congress has acquiesced.

In spite of Constitutional guarantees, the Executive and the Congress have refused to hear the citizens' Petitions for Redress of these grievances.

In spite of Constitutional guarantees, the Executive is harassing and penalizing those citizens whose Petitions for Redress have gone unanswered and who now are acting to stop the withholding and payment of the illegal direct tax on labor, and tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court are cooperating in this abuse of government power.

The Government of the United States  is committing wrongful, unconstitutional acts resulting in injuries, loss and damage to the majority of American Citizens.

The Constitution is hanging by a thread - the First Amendment Right to Petition, which includes the Right of Redress "BEFORE TAXES", is the only non-violent means by which the American people can directly confront unlawful government conduct. This Right to Petition is essential to the protection and preservation of individual liberty and equal justice under the law. The American People are being systematically denied this unalienable Right by the Executive, Legislative and Judicial branches of the federal government.

We The People have Petitioned the Executive and the Legislative branches. We now Petition to test the attitude of the Judiciary. We seek a declaration of our Rights and injunctive relief.

The Final Result:  A group of corrupt Judges have made the determination, that government is no long bound under Article 1 of the Constitution to acknowledge and answer questions formally posed under the Redress of Grievance Clause and our elected Representatives will not pass any legislation for its enforcement.  The “Right” to Redress of Grievance has been denied by our government and the entire preparatory and legal history of the case can be read at http://www.givemeliberty.org

The Money Clauses of our Constitution are going to shed some light on several fallacious beliefs that many wrongly hold about our society.  One, there is a rule of law. If the various States and Federal Government can break the law or the U.S. Constitution, therefore a valid Rule of Law does not exist. Two provisions in our Constitution conclude the requirements of the use of gold and silver by our banking system. (1.) Article 1 Section 8, paragraph 5. The Congress shall have the Power To….coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of Foreign Coin and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures.  With paper fiat currency these requirements cannot be fulfilled. We do not weigh or create standard of measures for paper we only place different numbers on them and Foreign Coin is prohibited from being used as legal tender and therefore government cannot regulate their values. (2.) Article 1 Section 10, paragraph 1, clause 5. No State shall; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in payment of Debts. When government made paper notes legal tender this Constitutional requirement was violated and so was the “Rule of Law”. Those States and the Federal government, by passing various legal tender laws requiring Citizens to only utilized fiat paper currency clearly usurped the  Constitutional intent of our founding fathers and therefore paper money is constitutionally illegal until such time as those Constitution clauses are repealed and a new amendment legalizing paper money as legal tender is enacted. Gold confiscated by the FDR administration in 1933 was an illegal act and there is no other way in which to portray or condone such action and in hindsight it was a lot more destructive to our society than originally thought is a contributory factor to our current economic meltdown. A true “Rule of Law” does not exist. It is more like the current rulers make the law and you can’t even ask questions the meaning of the terms or the interpretations of its content.  Let me rephrase that; you can ask the questions they just won’t answer them so therefore our constitution and the rule of law is a fallacy.     

The second falsehood that the unlawful and illegal implementation of debt based fiat paper money as legal tender by government has done is to make a very important distinction between a capitalist free market economic system and socialism economic system.  When money is created and lending controlled by government and central banking and when it is not derived by the free market, that makes for various reasons, a system that can be centrally controlled and manipulated from the top down. The statement that you hear political and financial pundits often make that we are a free market economy is highly false.  A central bank is the 5th platform of communism and paper money would never be excepted unless by political force using police power as it was in 1933 under the Presidential Executive Order number 6102 that forced Citizens to turn their gold into the government in exchange for paper currency.  Basically the government and central bank stole the gold and instituted an unconstitutional paper currency.  Gold and Silver coin has historically been the market derived currency or money and probably will be again as fiat currencies have always historically ended up reaching their intrinsic value.                

Both Democracy and free enterprise are dramatically curtailed as citizens become increasing taxed, regulated and manipulated by very powerful central bankers and politicians who used money creation and lending power to manipulate commerce and government contracts via cronyism. It is my belief that the institution of fiat currency and central banking are the two most destructive elements to free enterprise and democracy and there is an extensive array of literature to support those claims. Although Marx and Keynes are still quoted by progressives/socialists, their lies have long been exposed by the voluminous amount of Austrian literature and their authors especially over the last 25 years, no longer really attempt to debate Austrians in legitimate platforms of debate.   We will challenge any socialist of progressive individual or group to any amount of written debates on any socio-economic policy as long as the medium allows for the fair exchange of ideas.  If you reflect on recent history, socialists and progressives usually refuse to allow and feedback or criticism and focus on mediums and staging where their writings and monologs cannot be fully challenged; a historic standard tactic and practice of the ruling class who use socialism as a means of manipulation to the naivety of the average person.  Amazingly the majority have been exploited and they are not really aware of that fact.  Just look at who has been recently bailed out by government and it is easy to see who is in power and what group of cronies are being protected.      

My friend Debi noted that We The People are now stockholders in Chrysler, GM, Ford, AIG and 9 other insurance companies and about 18 banks. When am I going to receive my dividends and am I going to have to pay more taxes to pay for the lack of profits made by these “too big” to fail companies.  Am I getting hosed by the ruling class or is the middle class going to really benefit from all this socialism.  There is no difference between nationalizing a company as communists call for and taking partial ownership of a percentage of the shares of a company.  There is little chance that the majority will benefit from these activities so don’t hold your breath waiting for the benefits as the profits will be skimmed off by the ruling elites and if recent history continued the liabilities will be continued to be passed on to the taxpayer.  In socialist and communists countries history has surely shown that the middle class slowly becomes poorer and poorer.   Why people think that paying money to government to provide goods and services instead of paying for the good and services themselves, I can only assume that they don’t do the math and add up the costs of the inefficient bureaucracy as a middle man between the good and service providers and the consumers.  Have they not learned that government regulators almost always do a poor job and that caveat emptor is a wise policy as both an investor and a consumer.  No one is going to protect you interest better than you. Expecting government bureaucrats to protect your best interest is a foolish position especially when it comes to money and is one of the most costly elements of business. High tax rates could be eliminated if the regulatory waste was eliminated.  Why people believe that regulation works, after seeing the results of the economic meltdown.  When are people going to come to the reality that government regulation is a fraud of the highest level that taxes precious money away from the individual’s ability to care for, watch after and regulate their own affairs.  Ask the investors of Bernard Madoff, if they could exchange the amount of money paid to the SEC to regulate security firms for the ability to pay their own accountants/advisers to do the due-diligence for their investments with him. If people had a choice, the Security and Exchange Commission would not get a nickel. Regulate your own affairs and you will be much better off and much more prosperous.

So you have now been shown that a rule of law does not really exist as the Constitution is basically ignored by each and every generation in power for most of the last 100 years.  I’ve only pointed out a few of the usurpations of our Constitution but there are many more once you start to study this issue. You have been shown that not even our money is legal and lawful and that we are much more socialistic/communistic then we are taught to believe. By definition we are a fascist oligarchy, which you should look up the terms to try to understand, and we are surely not a free enterprise economy. The level of taxation and government fees, the size of government and amount of regulatory controls are what dictates the economic affairs of a society. When government issues a tax on all property being either real estate, mined or manufactured that is the economic basis of fascism. I said before that I can back up every aspect of this essay and will debate anyone under a fair platform but I’m keeping it as short as possible to maintain interest.       

The fallacy of a democracy or a democratic republic is the last issue I will address in this essay.  It is one of those things that we just really have not thought much about as we contemplate the various forms of government.  We just assume and have been taught that since government exists that it is the best and fairest method of running it since all other potential methods are even worse. We will not even get into the legitimate functions of government as that is an issue of great magnitude and debate. I am going to address the actual principles and realistic elements of Democracy and even though a democracy and a democratic republic are quite different they still employ the basis of a democracy; majority decision making using various levels of plurality from the simple majority 50% + 1 vote to a 2/3’s majority vote for constitutional issues and overriding a veto.    

I submit that it is not so much that a democracy can or cannot exist, it is that it cannot “effectively” exist in the realm of realistic human behavior. Political compromise, greed, irresponsibility and ignorance distort the effectiveness and outcome to such a degree that any potential benefits are not only negated but are often times manipulated or exacerbated to the detriment of society. Obviously democracy exists but it does not work to the benefit of the majority.  It’s interesting that we all can see and are experiencing a system that doesn’t appear to be working very well.  You speak to anyone and they will tell you many things that they are unhappy with or disagree with the outcome of our so-called democratic process yet the alternatives are even worse.  Dictatorships, oligarchies, aristocracies, monarchies, theocracies and various forms of military controls have all yielded horrible results, so modern societies no longer even consider such systems as viable.  Democracies have also yielded horrible results over the long run throughout history but what other forms of government are left.           

I like to start out by picking on Public Education Schools Teachers, to make my point, since they are placed on the highest pillar of public service for providing such a perceived beneficial service at relatively low wages.  Right now at least most of them still have a job.   Ask a public school teacher if they would vote for a candidate that supports less government funding from public education. Most parents surveyed however would choose private or parochial education if they had the money and some people disrespect public education so much that they are willing to home school despite still having to pay property taxes for public education.  The point however is that somehow through our Democratic process we as a nation have instituted Public Education based on the primary premise that all children should have access to education, despite the ability of the parent(s) to pay for it.  Free education for all children is also the agenda of socialism and communism and is the 10th platform of the Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and therefore it is an enactment in direct opposition to free enterprise.  However off the tract this is another one of many facts that dispels the erroneous concept that we are a free market socio-economic system. The majority of the wealthy send their children to private schools, many religious people send their children to parochial schools and many people opt to home school their children so is public education truly a system that was created for and on behalf of the will of the majority and does it truly benefit the majority.   And the important aspect of this analysis; did democracy work in the formulation of public education.  Remember that is my premise; that democracy does not nor cannot work for the benefit of the majority.   

Remember my premise is that people are either too greedy, too poorly educated, to irresponsible or that political compromise effectively corrupts the democratic process or all of the above. 

1.     Greed: 

Of course anybody who is poor is going to welcome public education as that is just one less thing to concern themselves with when considering having children.  They can actually have more children than they can afford since other people are going to be contributing taxes to pay for their children’s education.   That is a form of greed or more specifically selfishness as they are willing to take money from others by the force of taxation to pay for their happiness of having children.  To the people that can’t or decide not to have children, it is somewhat unfair as they are having to pay for the education of other parents children depriving themselves the use of the money that they must contribute through taxation.  Of course those that are able to pay for private and parochial education must also contribute through the force of taxation to those that have children that they cannot afford to educate which is unfair for them and selfish for those that force others to help support their children. To help others is altruism but to be forced to do it through a system of a redistribution of wealth promotes irresponsibility and greed. 

Do you think that the individuals working in public education such as the teachers are going to vote for candidate that support increased funding for education or decreased funding for education?  I have never seen the funding levels of public education cut in my lifetime except when forced to do so by deep recessions when revenue substantially decreases and I must make a point in that the unemployment rate within the public educational system dwarfs that of those creating the wealth in the private sector during these periods which is also unfair to those in the private sector.  Once government bureaucracies are institutionalized they are generally treated superior to their counterparts in the private sector from a job security standpoint which contributes to the poor performance of the system.       

2.     Ignorance:

Let face it just because a person has the right to vote does not mean that they have a great enough understanding of the issues to make the right vote for the right candidate.  I think being greedy is ignorant and I think a school teacher that votes for what is in their own best interest is both greedy and ignorance as they should be voting for what is in the best interest of the majority. If they do vote for something that is truly in the best interest of the majority and it happens to benefits you that is another story but that is not the case for many, many people.  Do military contractors vote for candidates that promise less military spending? Do wind turbine manufacturers vote for candidates that want to decrease government subsidies for wind power?  Do the elderly vote for candidates that want to increase or decrease benefits to the elderly. Are you starting to see the pattern. If people are voting for their own greater access to the public treasury, those candidates that promise greater government expenditures are going to get elected and those candidates which are attempting to do what in the best interest of the majority are not going to get elected. The potential benefits of a true democracy are negated. Why do you think that I can prove that almost every politician in my lifetime has lied on their campaign promises include our current President. Why do you think that government expenditures are at the level they are, and that we finally ran out of ways to try to fund these $multi-trillion deficits.  We even tried repealing old socialistic enactment like the Glass Stigal Act that allowed in a bit of competition back in the market but we were so far in the red that nothing could save the system from the recent meltdown.  Voting for what is in your own best interest when it is not in the best interest of the majority is greed and as you can see greed and ignorance go hand and hand.

Now throw in the deal making of the politicians as they attempt to get support for their favored bill and you get the, I’ll vote for your bill if you vote for my bill even though each wouldn’t vote for the others bill if they hadn’t made the deal.  So elected representative are making deals and trying to give everyone what they want through the redistribution of wealth system, someone will always unfairly be shortchanged. We have gotten what we deserve. Tax rates greater than the medieval surfs, that has either bankrupted our manufacturing base or forced them to off shore jurisdictions. And let’s not forget the largest government deficit in the history of the world. 

4.     Irresponsibility:

Several things must be said that are going to ruffle some feathers in that we are all guilty of irresponsibility and ignorance for what has happened to our country.  We have not been able to form a substantive alliance among the Citizens of our country to alter our course and that is a direct reflection on our greed, ignorance and irresponsibility. In my opinion ignorance in what Von Mises called political economy and I call socio-economics is the single most important factor affecting our society.  We are  always going to have to deal with those that are greedy but knowing how to deal with that type individual is also a part of the socio-economic understanding.  Those that do not educate themselves in this area should not vote and those that promote others to vote when their competency levels are not great enough should be chastised.  

The advocates of the Austrian/libertarian economic model have detailed over the last century that what is happening today was going to happen and not only did they tell you this, those like  Dr. Ron Paul, Robert Higgs, the late Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman, and many others told you what had to be done to stop this from happening.  I suggest you start reading and listening to what they wrote and said more closely. And do me a great favor, stop listening to the politicians and financial pundits on TV and from the main press as they are for the most part, bought and paid for. A list of some of the great authors and economists that suuport much of what I'm saying can be found at http://groups.google.com/group/HarrietRobbins/browse_thread/thread/99b412f358818a4c?hl=en  I highly suggest that you start reading.