Utopianstates Blog

The Peruvian constitution starts out with the following principle:

Article 1

The protection of the individual and respect for his dignity are the supreme goal of society and the government.

Just think about what you want government to do and you’ll come to the conclusion that this statement is not only correct, but fundamental.   People want the right to exist without any threats to their lives or property by criminals, invaders, or their own government.  The best way to implement these characteristics is to first make a proclaimation that it is the rights of government to protect the people and then define what those rights are.  That’s what the Peruvian constitution does starting with article 2.

Article 2

Every individual has the right:

1. to life, his identity, his physical, psychological, and moral integrity, and his free fulfillment and well-being. Such rights exist from the time of conception in all ways that are beneficial.

2. to equality before the law. No one may be discriminated against because of his origin, race, sex, language, religion, opinion, economic status, or any other reason.

…

23. to self-defense.

The right to life includes, obviously, the right to eat, breath, have shelter & clothing, and the right to consentual sex and families.  Right #1 is fundamental and similar to the ideal of the USA to protect life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

Right #2 specifies that all people have the right to equality before the law. No one may be discriminated against because of his origin, race, sex, language, religion, opinion, economic status, or any other reason.  The ideal of the USA is that “All men are created equal”.  The intention with that idea is that all men are equal in the eyes of the law and that all men have equal rights.  The USA conceived during the era of slavery.  Women didn’t have the right to vote and slaves were considered property.  Although later amendments corrected these deficiencies in the list of rights, the constitution wasn’t written with this as the “supreme goal of society and the government” as was the Peruvian constitution.

Right #3 is of particular importance to some that I know in that it specifies that people have the right to “self defense”.  Consequently, the inadvertant touching of a police officer to push away mace or protect ones self against the blows of the officer’s batton won’t result in A & B charges which will necessitate spending thousands on a lawyer to keep from going to jail for a couple of years, as is the case in the USA.

Chapter I enumerates a total of 24 individual rights.

Chapter II lists the Social and Economic Rights of the people.  This includes Articles 4 to 29.

Article 28

The government recognizes the right to form unions, to
engage in collective bargaining, and to strike. It ensures their democratic
exercise:

1. It guarantees trade union freedom.

2. It fosters collective bargaining and promotes the
peaceful solution of labor disputes.

Collective agreements are binding in the area for which
they are made.

3. It regulates the right to strike so that it will be
exercised in keeping with the social interest. It defines exceptions and
limitations.

Article 29

The government recognizes the right of workers to
participate in company profits and promotes other forms of participation.

Would the right to form a union have prevented the trade agreements entered into by the USA that effectively destroyed the trade unions by throwing our manufacturing and agricultural work forces into direct competition with the workers of communist nations?  It is plausible that any trade agreement, in order to be legal, would have had to have respected these two rights.

Chapter III continues by defining Political Rights and Duties.  Articles 30 to 38
define these rights and duties.  Note that constitution of the USA does NOT include – at the Federal level – the right to “participate in public affairs through the referendum, legislative initiative, the recall or removal of officials, and the right to hold the latter accountable”

Article 30

Peruvians over the age of 18 are citizens. In order to exercise their citizenship, they must register to vote.

Article 31

Citizens have the right to participate in public affairs
through the referendum, legislative initiative, the recall or removal of officials, and the right to hold the latter accountable. They have the right to be elected and to elect their representatives freely in accordance with the
conditions and procedures set forth by organic law.

It is the right and duty of residents to participate in
the municipal government in their jurisdiction. The law governs and fosters both direct and indirect mechanisms for their participation.

Citizens have the right to vote by virtue of their legal
status.

Voting is personal, equal, free, secret, and compulsory
up to the age of 70. It is optional thereafter.

Any act prohibiting or restricting a citizen from
exercising his rights is null and punishable by law.

The rich are always going to say that, you know, just give us more money and we’ll go out and spend more and then it will all trickle down to the rest of you. But that has not worked the last 10 years, and I hope the American public is catching on.
Warren Buffett

Of the billionaires I have known, money just brings out the basic traits in them. If they were jerks before they had money, they are simply jerks with a billion dollars.
Warren Buffett

Derivatives are financial weapons of mass destruction.
Warren Buffett

If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end – people like myself – should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.
Warren Buffett

I just think that – when a country needs more income and we do, we’re only taking in 15 percent of GDP, I mean, that – that – when a country needs more income, they should get it from the people that have it.
Warren Buffett

Read more: http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/w/warren_buffett.html#ixzz1bMCrwZgl

Donald Trump Interview

• Donald Trump believes that we ought to impose a 25% tax on Chinese goods until they behave and stop manipulating our currency.  They are making a 350 billion dollar profit on the USA this year and only giving us the loans to do it.
• We don’t need free trade, we need fair trade.
• We have all the cards and power.
• They are crushing us.
• The people the USA has negotiating the trade agreements now don’t know what they are doing.
• The United States is becoming a third world country.  In ten years China will be more powerful than the USA.  We are rebuilding China.
• The leaders of the United States are fools.

I believe that 80% of Americans have 20% of the wealth and that conversely that 20% of Americans have 80% of the wealth.  I believe that the top 1% of Americans have 50% of the wealth and that the bottom 50% of Americans have zero percent of the wealth.

The debt is over 14 trillion (http://www.usdebtclock.org/), the national revenue is less than 2.3 trillion.  Federal spending is over 3.5 trillion.  The total household assets are 56 trillion.

 Eighty percent of Americans have 20% of the 56 trillion or 11.2 trillion dollars. The national debt is 14 trillion.  The lower eighty percent of the population could not pay off the national debt if they tried.  The top 1% with 28 trillion in assets could easily pay off the national debt or take responsibility for it.

 Someone still has to take responsibility for the revenue deficit which is 1.2 trillion per year.  That has to be brought to zero without impacting jobs.

 Foreign assets owned in this country are about 22 trillion.  Perhaps a proportionate share of the debt should be absorbed by the people that own foreign assets.  Why should people be allowed to profit by America’s wealth but have none of the responsibility for the debt?  Why should foreign assets be $22 trillion while eighty percent of Americans have only 11.2 trillion dollars in assets?  Foreigners own twice as much of America as do the majority of Americans without paying any taxes or social security?

 The chief export of Americans has been our non renewable assets.  Meanwhile we import renewable assets like cars and TV sets.  We have to bring that into balance.  Exports of renewable assets must equal imports of renewable assets.

 One way to optimize productivity is to get the people producing something even if not as productively as, say, Asian workers.  Just get them productive and making something.  If 60 million non-working Americans each created renewable assets of $300 a week, then America would be creating 18 billion a week or almost a trillion dollars a year in renewable assets.  People need money to live, so the government would still have to subsidize these people to the point where they could rent an apartment, buy food and have transportation.  But the point is that they would be productive.

 Renewable wealth has to be created, not government jobs and not welfare.

 The government is currently in the process of printing money.  That will depreciate the worth of the dollar and make our debt less.  This is a dishonest way around the problem of the debt, but will help.  At least it short circuits having to explain to people with assets why their assets are worth less.

Write in “Random University Graduate” for all your ballot choices in the next elections. It’s a win-win vote.

Unless your candidate speaks against having the American worker compete with the slave labor of other countries, the current norm, then vote for Mr./Mrs. Random for that position.

Hopefully the day will come where if “Random” gets the highest number of votes, then a random candidate will be drawn from a pool of qualified college graduates.

If you really want to improve a sub worthless government, work towards getting the aforementioned idea (an optional lottocracy) approved as a legal option.

The guardian wrote: “How to end Washington’s Ignorance”.

You say:  “Good luck with that!”

Do you feel that your letters to Washington are ignored, you know, neglected, overlooked, disregard or forgotten?

You say: “Of course.  That’s the way it always has been and always will be – unless they put the letters in a database for all Washington to see”

Exactly!  Organize the database by complaint, suggestion, reason, author, and subject and it might be useful.  I hate taking the time to write Washington when I feel it will be ignored.  Sometimes I feel I have to spam the letters to get someone to pay attention.  It would be nice for Washington to have a spam free database of well written letters.  With such a database, writing a letter to Washington might be better than voting.  It seems as if Washington only pays a little attention to the big issues and ignores everything else, even the less popular solutions to the big issues.

You say:  “Good government is common sense.”

You’ve got that right!