It was a mistake to post anything here. This page has huge page rank on Google, and there's zero curiosity or intellectual depth on this thread. If you came here looking for information about my book, or an Objectivist philosophy of law -- sorry, it ain't here. Like the real estate promoter in Chile who never read Atlas Shrugged, most of the folks on this list (except MikeMarotta, below) wouldn't know a tort from a teaspoon.

If James Madison, Alexander Hamilton and a few other great men did what they intended to fix the problems of the Articles of Confederation we might not be in this fix we are in today. You can read all this from the Federalist and Anti-Federalist papers at Publius Huldah, Publius on the Constitution. Following the Constitution should have been easy, but some wanted a Monarchy from which they had just won a battle over. Article V states what can be done to resolve this prob. and some states are trying this method.

America is already over the edge. It needs surgery, not medication. Surgery probably isn't even enough at this point.

:)... well, the issue of 'not trusting future Congresses' seems to be pretty well established and proven already, so there's not much 'more' to fear there.. :)

And yes, the US Dollar may, some time in the future cease to be The World's Reserve Currency, but I think that point is less relevant to the concept of backing away from The Abyss gradually and predictably, rather than the typical Congressional solutions of "let's pass this law and everything will be fixed in time for my re-election."

:)

The problems with such a gradual transition are that 1) future Congresses can't be trusted to honor what laws previous Congresses passed, and 2) over such a long period of time, at a minimum, the value of money will have been greatly diminished. By then, there is a very strong likelihood that the dollar will no longer be the world's reserve currency.

Thank you. I was offering my opinion on one aspect which was described in this thread, nothing more. If I can find what I consider a reasonable fault in one item of an allegedly 'very carefully thought out plan,' I am willing to voice that concern.

I've looked at Flat Taxes and Fair Tax proposals and found some flaws in them, too, although I currently tend to support Flat Tax policies... again, if they're well-defined and some of the unintended consequences are brought into consideration before enactment...

http://www.plusaf.com/lessons/flattax.ht... is where I've collected some references and comments.

If all that happens is a balanced budget amendment, indeed it would be insufficient. But, the proposed Constitutional Convention will start with 10 of Mark Levin's 11 proposed amendments. His amendments include replacing the current Marxist-style tax code with a flat tax. That would leave the IRS in place, which I think is a bad idea. I would prefer scrapping the 16th amendment and replacing it with a national sales tax, and that would almost certainly be debated at the Convention...especially in light of what the IRS has been doing lately.

Members of the Federal Government would have no say at all about what amendments are proposed.

I suggest that you read Levin's book before passing judgment on a very carefully thought out plan.

Ah, it may be inaccurate, but I did find a source...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_F...

Suggestion, jbrenner, from this engineer/marketing-trained guy....

shift the problem/solution methodology to one of "ok, it took scores of years to get into this mess; let's back out gradually...." Phase in the necessary changes over APPROPRIATE time spans.... want to get rid of mortgage interest deductions? Lower the deduction 5% a year for 20 years until it's gone. That's probably a lot longer than the average duration of a home mortgage.... anyone who can't adjust to that change in 20 years shouldn't own a house...

Ditto for ALL subsidies for ALL industries... perhaps over a ten-year span?

and so on... Thoughts?

they might like my website, too... plusaf dot com.

What are some other examples of democratic republics like US that collapsed after 200-250 years?

I disagree... without some serious side conditions, all a 'balanced budget amendment' means is that the government can raise taxes any time in order to match expenditures, no matter how ill-thought-out those expenditures might be or have been.

I think strong sunset laws might help, but I can't imagine ANY congressmonkey proposing one.

not to mention....

"All great democracies have committed financial suicide somewhere between 200 and 250 years after being founded. The reason? The voters figured out they could vote themselves money from the treasury by electing people who promised to give them money from the treasury in exchange for electing them.

"The United States officially became a Republic in 1776, 238 years ago. The number of people now getting free stuff outnumbers the people paying for the free stuff."

[from my home page]

In fact, there is no provision at all for what happens when an officer of the government chooses to ignore any / all parts of the Constitution. That, I believe, is the fundamental flaw of the Constitution. The second flaw, which over time allowed for it's unraveling, is the inclusion of voters that do not have a stake in the society. Those people were never intended to vote, but were not specifically prohibited. Then, comes an uneducated "do-gooder" LBJ and leaves his mark to nauseate the posterity.

I hadn't forgotten that one. I am very mixed in my opinion of Lincoln.

No, they got $225 as an offer for $100000 worth of bonds. The threatening letter was worse than the pittance of an offer.

I am not afraid of a few crank calls. I haven't gotten any yet. I've been in mills, but haven't worked in one. However, I am thinking of buying my own CNC mill. I realize that is another kind of mill entirely.


While I am currently a professor, that is because my employer plays by Galt's rules, or at least allows me to do so. I have been a minor partner in two small businesses, but I refuse to do so during this administration that took $100 K of my parents' retirement money in the form of GM bonds and offered them $225 in a threatening letter. Being a professor right now is my form of strike.

Jbrenner, I've recorded the number you provided so, if you can, edit or delete the message containing it to prevent possible crank calls (you are a brave soul doing that!). I'll contact you when I get a window of opportunity when we can chat. You are correct that it would be difficult to teach all of what I do in a classroom environment. Experiencing the chemical and manufacturing environment facing real world problems while management has a hand on your shoulder asking "how much is this costing?" and "is it done yet?" as well as knowing injury (or worse) to personnel, yourself, and the environment can easily occur if you make a mistake. It can be rewarding when a system you helped bring up can process oil spill from the Gulf of Mexico and send oil one way and potable water the other. I haven't always worked with process controls. In the 80s I worked with a research team developing signal processing systems (machine vision) that could identify defects in moving web material (plastic or metal). I found myself testing it in a steel mill looking for defects the human eye couldn't see in coil stock moving hundreds of feet per minute. The end result was to be able to map and cut out or cut around defects that would otherwise end up in the canning industry or automotive industry, meaning better cans for food storage and better car bodies. Every American ought to experience a steel mill. One thing for me is it really brought Rearden steel to life.

I've worked with computer assisted manufacturing in many forms and in many computer languages in many different environments practically since it was invented. I certainly do not know all there is to know because the field is gigantic, but it's fascinating as anything could possibly be. I was constantly learning and that was all part of the fun. This field, the way I've experienced it, always keeps you on the edge of technology. How DO "they" really make that super thin nearly unbreakable touchscreen glass on a cell phone or tablet? Been there and seen it.

One of my grandsons asked me what I do and I related some of my experiences to him, but in the end I asked if he ever saw the movie "The Matrix". When he said yes, I recalled for him the scene where Neo and the Commissioner were standing on the balcony overlooking the chasm containing the manufacturing sector. The Commissioner told Neo (I'm paraphrasing here) "There are the machines that purify our water, make our food, our clothing, our energy, and many other things. Nobody knows how they work anymore but they keep on working". "Well", I told him," I am one of the 'ancients' that has a knowledge, even if imperfect, of how a good slice of it works. I can program the computers that make computers." He smiled.

Hey, this old guy has probably bored you enough for now and I have other things to do. Catch you later!

New Smyrna Beach is a nice area.
I live about an hour south of there, and work 1/2 hour further south in Melbourne at Florida Tech.
Enjoy Bike Week coming up right after the Daytona 500. If you want to come down and chat, call me at 321-749-3437. You pick the evening.

Interesting coincidence of events. Although my home is near Rochester, NY I am currently in New Smyrna Beach (just south of Daytona) on family business. It is taking all my time and I'm not sure if I can break away for some weeks to come. I don't need a free dinner, but it would be nice to chat. My programming skills have had me in factories all over the US as well as a couple of opportunities to live in different cities in China to work in chemical making facilities. Uh oh, wife calling and have to go, lol.

This one to me sounds good, but could have really extreme secondary effects. What I would prefer to do is to explicitly limit the ability of Courts to invalidate ballot measures. When 1-3 judges can overrule and negate a State's Constitutional vote, that to me is a sign of an imbalanced judiciary.

Agreed. That one was originally intended well, but has been misapplied to grant US citizenship protections to non-citizens - a gross perversion of any nation's self-identification.