Forum Post: Consensus doesnt work in real life.
Posted 12 years ago on Oct. 31, 2011, 12:07 a.m. EST by hchc
(3297)
from Tampa, FL
This content is user submitted and not an official statement
America is the most diverse place on the planet. Consensus works great in a park with fairly like minded people. When the decisions become about people's futures, their lives and their kids (the decisions the gov has to deal with), its a no go.
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The goal is to find what people do agree on. Nobody is going to agree on religion, capitalism or socialism, Dem or Rep. But we can agree on basic rights and we can agree the wealth disparity is out of control. We need to find common ground to make sure we preserve or freedoms and human rights.
I just find it interesting, that the country was founded on some basic rights, that have all been taken from us, but there is zero talk of simply going over them and pushing them forward again.
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we all are in consensus that our basic right to free speech is one that needs to be respected. there is consensus about just about all of our constitutional rights. 99% of americans are in consensus that corporations don't represent the intrest of the people so they should not have the same legal status as if they are people. We have been trained by corporations to be polarized against each other when in reality 99% of americans are in consensus about the essence of what this country was founded on and that is the only way a true democracy can work is if the peoples voices can be heard. Republicans and democrats agree on almost every constitutional amendment..the difference comes only when we get into the minute details of semantics. I think there is much talk happening all over this forum about our basic rights. We need to start with the first amendment and exercise our right to free speech in public spaces.
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I agree we need to fortify those basic rights, but remember we are a different nation. Our nation was built on land ownership when we were developing. When people were expanding to the West they were given free ownership of land, which is a free handout of wealth. It took people who had nothing into prosperity. We have lost sight of this. Now in a complex world, we would look back at free land as socialist. Why? America was based on the premise that everyone had a right to live, not the right to sell their labor. People talk about how they are American but our ancestors would be appaled at how we treat each other. If we really want to get to the root of what America used to be, that's through land reform; an equal opportunity of land through a land tax.
The theory of economic rent has been around for some time, but land taxation has seldom been implemented throughout history. It is well known that the factors of production are composed of land, labor and capital. Land, in the economic sense, can be explained as anything with a productive capacity that has not been created by men or women, but has value created by the community. Labor is any human energy spent , whether by the mind or through brute force, that contributes to a means of production. Capital is mainly what is spent from savings for future production. Under the current system, mainly labor and capital are taxed, while the landed elite make out like bandits with the rents that are created by the community! It is no surprise that civilizations have suffered from vast inequalities since the founding of the first governments.
What we need to fight for is a redistribution of these economic rents for the sake of the people, while at the same time reducing the tax rates on labor and capital. These rents from land are the source of all wealth and are presently held by a small number of wealthy people who will speculate and slow there productive capacity in order to increase profits.
This demand goes out to the people of OWS! If there is one thing we need to change in order to promote equality, environmental protection and job creation through increased productive capacity, this is the solution we need. Please read about economic rent and land taxation in order to fully grasp the concept.
This is something proven in theory and not based on anyone's personal opinion or ideology. While we are divided on many things, it's time to come together with some real demands to benefit the majority of unrepresented individuals of the world. Lets show the top 1% that we know where their unearned wealth is coming from and that we know exactly what is needed in order to bring them back to the real world!
You need to read The Federalist #10 by James Madison and you will see you statement is false. The fact we are so diverse is why it works. Read the document and you will see why, im not going to type for a half hour to prove you wrong, if you really care enough about not sounding ignorant you can read the document.
Any time a small group of individuals dictates the outcomes to the vast majority, a little concensus might just be a good thing.
consensus is small minority of people dictating the agenda of the majority, so it is like curing bloodloss with leeches.