Checks and Balances... Or Mostly Just Checks

Ok.. Here's another political rant. I know I said I hate politics and I do, but I hate the feeling that I'm being screwed more.  And every day I see the government screwing the average person.

I think every 235 years it's time for us to look at our government and our laws and our regulations and our taxes and our representation and see what's still relevant; what makes sense.  Seriously, the government was written "for the people by the people" but has clearly become "run by the rich for the rich" or more specifically "run for the wealthy, powered with money from the poor".  And let me clarify immediately, "rich" does not necessarily refer to private individuals (though in some cases it does - CEO's getting $500 million a year qualify), but more it refers to companies and industries and lobbyists who care not about the average person, but their special interest.

Below I'm going to gripe about some issues I have, but these are just a few... Chime in with what irritates you or how I'm an idiot, or whatever you've got to say..

- I've already taken a shot at the RIAA in this blog (http://thegiftandthegoods.blogspot.com/2009/12/riaa-its-not-about-music-anymore.html) but every day we hear a new way in which the government is trying to protect the arts or internet businesses.  I am of course against Piracy and as a business person myself, I fully support people making money for their talents.  I do however believe the "market" or economy should be allowed to self-regulate.  In all truth, for a long time music has been in a bubble - similar to the housing market.  Record labels demand $15 for a CD where they know likely only 2 or 3 songs will become "popular" and charge ticket prices at concerts upwards of $200 a seat.  If the market is resorting to piracy perhaps the industry is the one doing something wrong?  Sure, piracy threatens the future of the digital arts.  I don't argue for a second that if musicians can't get paid it may limit the number of future musicians, but no one stopped the creation of posters which hurt painters.  And in truth, if musicians stop making music eventually people will yearn for new music and the industy will be reborn.  Perhaps its time the government stopped helping to hold up this bubble and let it pop?

- Why do tax dollars go to pay for stadiums and arenas run by private franchises?  I love sports - pretty much more than anything else- but I can't afford to go to the games.  Why do my tax dollars fund those stadiums?  I know the government and teams will tell me the stadium brings in lots of revenue to the state, but not if the NFL/NBA has a lock-out!  How can my tax dollars go to building stadiums and then still teams are allowed to sell seat licenses - which mean absolutely nothing (in fact you can't even customize your seat [ie sell ad space] even though you have the license)?

- I've griped on here many times about speed limits (http://thegiftandthegoods.blogspot.com/2009/12/need-for-speed.html), but this is my biggest issue.  Speeding is not a crime.  It is something the average person does every time they get in their car.  Speed limits were originally created to protect people, but now they are simply a form of taxation (without representation) and it needs to stop.  At the very least the governments need to realize and acknowledge that most speed limits were decided before cars had anti-lock breaks and clearly aren't realistic anymore.  And to further prove my point:  the fact that you can be giving a ticket via a camera and a picture mailed to your home proves the lack of severity of the issue.

- Why don't we let common sense rule the day?  Why does shit need to be written down to be official?  Piracy is wrong.  We can go ahead and create laws that say so.  But why do we allow the RIAA or other parties take advantage?  Why do we allow them to charge $20,000 in damages per song (as in the above post)?  Why do we allow them to go after people who do stupid things on YouTube, but happen to have the song in the background?

- Why do we let people sue McDonald's because the coffee is too hot?  Causing all future coffee to be just luke warm?

- Why do we think laying off teachers is a good idea?  Have we learned nothing about the value of education?  Have we forgotten that children are our future?

I'm not just a complainer though... I'm also a problem solver and I've got some suggestions...

- We have tons of unemployment, but we're looking for ways to stimulate the economy, hmmm... How about creating jobs?  More specifically, how about hiring some of the overabundant supply of lawyers to review all the above things (and the thousands of others) and actually fix the system?  How about hiring civil engineers to review all of the speed limits and adjust them for today's automobile technology?  How about just keeping our (good) teachers employed?

I know, I know, someone is going to ask where we are going to get the money for all of that.  I've got ideas for that too..  1 - see my last post.  Let's use campaign contribution money.  2 - Take it from our overpaid and underperforming Congressmen/women and Senators and Members of the House who are so busy bickering and trying to screw each other to actually consider their citizens.  3 - Take it out of the travel and leisure and lunch budget of the aforementioned groups.  Afterall, do they really need catered lunches every day? and meetings in Hawaii (I'm looking at you former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele)?