It’s easy to think that the government should simply enforce the will of the people, by a simple majority. It can quickly slide into abusive rules against minorities and individuals. Thus, the government becomes a dictatorship to enforce these rules.
Many easy solutions would be trampling fundamental human rights. It is not the rich who are blocking them. It is the government that must block them! Here are some examples:
Suppressing cash for more control: an illusion
The end of banknotes is not for tomorrow. This article from slate.com hopes for such a suppression because it wishes to control transactions in order to fight black markets and other reasons.
However, a cashless society is unlikely. If people want cash, they will get cash. They will use unlawful substitutes such as silver coins or foreign banknotes. They will use it to pay for their marijuana or tax-free underground transactions. We can also imagine private coins such as casino coins that can be used in bars and restaurants. You buy the coins when you enter your milkshake bar, and you pay after each drink. If such coins contain silver, the coins may circulate outside of the dive-bar, at their silver weight value. Indirectly, the coin maker will make a fortune… of lawful dollars. Finally, the US supreme court will certainly not allow a ban on “casino coins”.
No easy solution without trampling the human rights
Moreover, “easy” solutions would backfire with more damage that most had anticipated. History showed that “easy” solutions based on excessive power to the entrepreneurs, or instead on punitive taxation, have all turned bad.
Our democracies are based on the Human Rights, which include private property and defense of the minorities. This way, the majority doesn’t have all the rights. The ruler elected by the majority can’t confiscate every newspaper, or he is a dictator. “Check and Balances” is the rule to prevent the excesses of the majority.
The American Founding Fathers knew their classics. They knew the failure of the Athenian direct democracy around the 5th century BC. Greece again…
