Flat tax all the way!!!!

         The question is what is better flat tax or a progressive tax? Both forms of these taxes have their pros and there cons. I personally think that the United States should have a flat tax. I like the idea that everyone will pay a fixed rate. 

          Like I said before I like the idea that everyone in the United States would have to pay the same fixed rate. I like this idea because it would make the taxation process easier and more fare to everyone. People say that the flat tax method will hurt the poor. And in some ways it maybe would. This method of taxation I think would help to get people to try more to get better jobs, and not be the lazy Americans that we are. There are jobs out there for people to work, it’s just people just don’t want to work the jobs.

         It is said that the flat tax method would be in favor of the rich. I say that is not true. The reason why I think the way I do is that people are always fighting for equality. People want equal rights, equal jobs. But people don’t want to pay the same fixed rate that the next guy is paying.

                      

        I don’t like the progressive tax because I think that it is too nice to the poor. For example the poor would have their tax costs covered. I think that is a load of bull, the poor are people too they need to be taxed just like everybody else and not have someone else pay their taxes off because they are some cases too lazy to work.

        In the end I think that the flat tax method is the way to go. It is fair to both sides because they are paying the same rate. I also like the fact that it would make tax season easier  for people to do.

Japan vs Germany

The government class had to read a few blogs that Mr. Cutler had found. The blogs were about WWII time an how cruel the Japanese and the Germans were to their prisoners. The blogs that I read really emphasized how large scale the Germans were compared to the Japanese, but on the other hand the blogs also emphasized how more cruel the Japanese were.

                When people think about WWII they think about the Germans fighting, but the Japanese are often over looked when they did things that were worse. The two major differences that the information that we read about was the cruelty and the size. I believe that Germany was a very large scale mass execution zone for the prisoners that were there. Japan I believe was still bad but it wasn't on the level of Germany in size. Japan I believe was the crueler out of the two. Germany had Dr. Death that liked to experiment on the prisoners. Now in Japan a very similar thing was taking place accept more people were doing it. It was ok for the Japanese to do this because the doctors were finding different and more advance weapons that Japan later could on the front of their armies.

                When the war was over the two nations still had some differences one was how well did they fare after the war. Japan got off Scot free, because the United States had to but in and say that if the U.S. would obtain all of the information that the Japanese’s had on biological warfare we would give them pardon. Germany on the other hand didn't fare so good they had to pay for their war crimes. Another theory that I created was that maybe that the U.S. thought that Germany was worse because the people that they were killing were mostly white, while over in japan they were killing Chinese. It makes me wonder what were all of the reasons for the pardoning and the fulfillment of justice.

Nixon test

President Nixon was the first and only president to resign from office, which raises a few questions. A couple of questions could be. What kind of person was Nixon? What were the good that he did while he was in office? What were the bad things that he did in his presidency?

            

        Everyone thinks that if you do something bad that makes you a bad person. This is what I think happened with President Nixon. I don’t personally believe that President Nixon was a bad person. I think that he is just being prosecuted for the wrong that he had done. People don’t think in the minds of others. He was severely stressed and I think that in that moment he just made a mistake, but this mistake was something that he could never take back. In the end I think that he was a good person but he just made a mistake.

               

        When people think of President Nixon they think of all the bad that he had done. President Nixon did many good things while he was in office. One of the things that really set Nixon apart from other presidents was his foreign policy. One of his greatest accomplishments was breaking the barrier between the United States and china. Nixon was the first U.S. president to visit the PRC (People’s Republic of china). This was a turning point when it comes to the relationships between the United States and China.

             

         Another great thing that Nixon did was he worked a lot with Russia to strengthen the relationships between the two of us. Nixon did this by giving the Salt talks they were talks corresponding international treaties on the issues of armament control.

               

        Nixon created a plan to get the troops that were fighting the war in Vietnam. This plan was called Vietnamization, the plan was to train South Vietnamese to fight the war for themselves. In a way it worked because he got the troops out of Vietnam, but the north retook the ground.

               

        Now Nixon’s presidency wasn’t all good. He did do things that weren’t right. First the thing that he may be the most known for, yes, Watergate. Watergate was I believe Nixon’s greatest down fall. I think he was just under stress and made a bad decision like we all do. Another reason why the American people don’t like him is because of his association with the oil crisis. Since then the oil prices have been increasing at a rate that angers the public. People said that his foreign policy was better than his domestic policy. They would be right Nixon I believe spent more time working on things out of the country than he did while he was in the country.

              

        Nixon I believe was a good president he got some major things dome while he was in office. Yes he did some things wrong, but he is only human. Without him we wouldn’t have a lot of the things that we have today. Where would the United States be if we didn’t have Nixon as president, I don’t know? I know for Shure that that U.S is a place I don’t want to live in. How about you?

                

Government trip

        I thought that our government trip that we took yesterday was very interesting, the ride there not so much. I learned a lot over the course of the day. I didn't think I would like it but I did.

     I was very interested when we got to sit in committee. I thought that it was neat to see that the representatives are willing to vote in the good of the people and not their own selfish ways. It was cool to see the proposals that were spoken on the gambling bill. It was nice to meet our district representatives and talk to them about current issues, and ask them about questions that I had. It was nice that the representatives had answers to my questions. The Pizza Ranch in Ft. Pierre is probably one of the best Pizza Ranches I have eaten at. We sat in the House session after lunch. I didn't really care for the house compared to the committee. I still thought the House of Representatives session was interesting. It was cool to see some of the representatives get heated up on a couple of bills.  

     Overall I liked the trip. I thought the trip was interesting to see how the state government works. I think it would be so bad being a representative. In fact I think it would kind of be fun.

(Capitalism or Socialism) Which is better???

Martin Luther King Jr. Once said "I imagine you already know that I am much more socialistic in my economic theory than capitalistic. And yet I am not so opposed to capitalism that I have failed to see its relative merits. It started out with a noble and high motive, viz., to block the trade monopolies of nobles, but like most human systems it fell victim to the very thing it was revolting against. So today capitalism has out-lived its usefulness. It has brought about a system that takes necessities from the masses to give luxuries to the classes."(Martin Luther King Jr.) Which makes one think of many questions Is the good old U S of A considered to be capitalistic economy? Has it lived out its usefulness? Is a socialistic economy better?

Yes the United States is a capitalistic economy. The definition of capitalism is “an economic system in which investment in and ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is made and maintained chiefly by private individuals or corporations, especially as contrasted to cooperatively or state-owned means of wealth.” I personally do not like this economy because if one is not rich they are poor. Capitalism is driven firmly on the basis of greed, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer because they are working for the “Big People”. I personally think that our capitalistic economy has out lived its usefulness, but I don’t think the country would have any other better forms of an economy to choose from.

One option for a different economy would be socialism. Socialism is a way of organizing a society in which major industries are owned and controlled by the government rather than by individual people and companies. I don’t really agree with the ideas of a socialistic economy. People want to do things on their own. People don’t want the government calling all of the shots, people are already complaining that the government already has too much pull when it comes to the economy, what would happen if we adopted a socialistic economy? People wouldn't know the difference between socialistic and communistic.I don’t think that a socialistic economy would be a whole lot different than a capitalist economy because most of the rich people are in the government so people wouldn't like it just as much as the capitalistic economy. Yes capitalism has outlived its usefulness but I think as of right now that it is the lesser of two evils and we have to take the lesser one.  

Source: page 36 in The Autobiography of Martin Luther King, Jr. Edited by Clayborne Carson (1998). Grand Central Publishing.

John Adams quote responce

The United States government is classified as a democracy. John Adams stated that democracy…while it lasts, is no bloodier than either aristocracy or a monarchy. This to me makes sense, because in an aristocracy few select people hold most of the power. The democracy that we have today when you think about it is basically run by the rich and powerful. Also the democracy that we know today is similar to a monarchy. The reason why I believe that the democracy is like a monarchy we have the president. Yes, he doesn't have all the power of the United States government, but he has the power to veto or pass laws. Since he has that power he can be a pain in the neck for the other branches of the government. All of these forms of government have their pros and cons that set them apart from one another. I think that even though they are their own governments that they are no different than one another when it comes down to the government that the people and other countries see.

John also stated that a democracy will never last long. The democracy that we know today started back in colonial times. In the time since it was created to the present time it has evolved into something it should not have been. Democracy today is really just a giant republic. The power has not been given to the people. In a true democracy the people have all of the power of the government, which we have not kept true.  Instead the power has been given to the rich and powerful “leaders” of our country. The leaders don’t care about what the people want they only care about how much money that they are going to make and how they are going to make their lives better. While the leaders should be considering the lives of the people they are serving. I believe that the way that the government is going the United States will become a communism under the mask of a democracy. The reason I think that is because our government is just becoming a self-centered selfish money hungry government that has no though about the people that it is serving. In my mind that is how I define communism.

                The united states has its flaws and if we don’t fix those flaws the whole system of government that we know and rely on will be destroyed and turned into something that we don’t want.

Bicameral system assignment

     The United States has had a bicameral legislature for many years. The construction made the U.S have a bicameral system because it was working for other people like the members of the British parliament. It also did it because it was practical because all states were looking to have equal votes and the bicameral system was the best way to do that. Also the system would put checks on the other systems. Making things run more smoothly. 

     The bicameral system has been in place for a long time. I believe that it is working well to keep the power divided up. Since it is running so well I believe that it should not be changed. I believe that a lot of people would agree with me that the bicameral system is still working just as well as it was back in the days of when it was created. I also believe that it has helped make politics run more smoothly.