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by Stephen B.

Created on: July 12, 2008   Last Updated: July 18, 2008

The people within the United States have chosen to bestow less and less trust in Washington since Vietnam. The movement in this outlook has been because of abuses in power and just plane passive nihilism of the everyday citizen. Personally I have to agree with these people that point fingers at the government for abusing its power. With that said the real problem is that these so called federal bureaucrats are just reflections of society.

Our current system is set up to protect American business interest and it shapes every aspect of foreign and domestic policy. That is the main reason we really have no choice in elections anymore because these bureaucrats are all from the same schools, corporations, and law firms within 15 square blocks of downtown New York, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, and Washington. Basically the same people are running for office with a new smile, so there is just more of the same from the men that have ideals based on what the current corporate infrastructure deems as "free-market capitalism."

As far as these people just reflecting society, look no farther than where they grow up, go to school, eat, shop, watch television, etc. Everything they go through is what any other Americans go through, so these people are not really bad leaders. They are just extensions of a bad public. This country is struggling to educate children and give basic health care to the elderly which just goes to show that bureaucrats do not really care for the average Americans. Most Americans don't care about the average American either, actually most Americans don't even consider themselves average Americans, so they only care about themselves. If there was a way to make money off the homeless and uneducated then someone would be exploiting that market while lobbying Congress for legislation to help them further their business ambitions. No one lobbies for the homeless because there is no money in it. This is something that all the bureaucrats who are ex-businessmen (like our president and vice-president) have in their minds while they promote legislation.

Capitali sm is the reason we cannot trust these bureaucrats in the first place. It is hard to get the government in Washington to do anything because American industry has its hands on everything and they just have no room to breathe. Constantly you here economists and rogue politicians talking about the need to get the government off our backs and to stop being our mommy, but you never here those same people saying that we need to get industry off the government's back so it can function properly. Capitalism requires a strict policy of ethics to function properly and over the last 30 years ethics have all but disappeared from the business world. Business has pushed aside doing the right thing for competitive edge and pleasing shareholders. Plus, you would be foolish to say that you did not want the government regulating some parts of your life, for example public water utilities and interest rates.

America has the cleanest, safest water system of any developed nation and it is hard not to recognize the great job that the EPA regulators have done to bring us clean water. When industry got involved they gave us bottled water which is supposed to be cleaner and natural, but they are regulated by the FDA, a government agency of regulators that is inadequate. Just look at all the bad drugs it lets on the market. This type of hit and miss with government regulations are all over the place.

The curtain that divided the commercial and investment banks was torn down a few years ago and now we are seeing that banks can be to big and diversified for thier own good so that regulation was a good thing. Everyone wants their kids to be safe in school, OSHA regulation is a great way to keep our government from cutting costs on cleaning and safety in our schools.

The problem with the direction the government is moving with its regulations today involves social regulations. The Constitution of this nation has not one line expressing the right of government to regulate any social policy. In fact any law where a person cannot express him/herself through marriage, protest, or even death is a violation of the Bill of Rights. In the 1950s the conservative movement had shifted away from the anti-Semitic old and toward a more modern day social approach that lead them to bring these social issues to the political rink. Now things like abortion and gay marriage are affecting us at to every end because its voting on whether we want regulation on our lifestyles or not. If we promote conservatives in government we will end up more social regulation that limits us to a certain set of ideals, but if we support liberals then we support industrial regulation and a blanket set of social ideals. Pick your poison, right?

Since all the people that are federal bureaucrats are really just a reflection of us then the question becomes: Do we really trust ourselves to say how we should live our lives? One thing that people have learned over history is that man cannot trust itself because we are our own worst enemies and this is no more apparent than in the relationship between the people and the government.

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