What Would Our Founding Fathers Think if They were Alive Today?

November 23, 2014
Ziad K. Abdelnour

Exploring Financial Strategies and Economic Insights

The blog reflects on the principles of America's Founding Fathers and their relevance in contemporary society. It argues that the core ideals that shaped the nation—liberty, democracy, and justice—are enduring, yet challenges readers to consider how these principles must be adapted to address modern issues such as technology's impact on privacy and the evolving nature of governance.

I believe the Founding Fathers would surely be proud of the vastness and strength of the United States, but they would be strongly disappointed with how we’ve come to interpret the Constitution.

Furthermore, they would be even more disappointed with the fact we have created a central bank that artificially foments growth and debases our currency through fraudulent monetary policy.

The Framers warned about our country and capitalist structure suffering from a central bank that purposefully imbalances the market in order to create phony credit and fake booms in the business cycle. The size and scope of the federal government, the incredible power of the Federal Reserve, and our empire overseas all would be considered perversions of the U.S. Constitution.

Surely they would be very proud that the United States has built some of the most amazing cities that the world has ever seen. They would in fact probably be surprised that the country they founded went on to become the greatest economic machine in the history of the world, and they would be absolutely astounded by things like our interstate highway system and the Internet.

However, there are quite a number of things that they would be horrified about as well and they never would have believed this would ever happen to the United States of America. Things such as …

The Federal Reserve devaluing the U.S. dollar by over 95 percent since 1913 and using this strategy to create the biggest mountain of government debt in the history of the world.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruling that U.S. government agents can legally sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, place a secret GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of you everywhere that you go.
The U.S. government accumulating a national debt that is rapidly approaching the 18 trillion dollar mark.
Americans now owing more than $1.1 trillion on student loans, which is more than the total amount that Americans owe on their credit cards.
Americans wasting an astounding amount of food. According to a study by the California Integrated Waste Management board, 63 percent of the average supermarket’s waste stream is food. When you break that down, it means that each supermarket wastes approximately 3,000 pounds of food each year.
Manufacturing employment in the United States falling by 40 percent since 1979.
The number of Americans with manufacturing jobs today in 2014 being smaller than the number of Americans who were employed in manufacturing in 1950.
Over 45 million Americans enrolled in the food stamp program now considered “the new normal” and Americans continuing to drop into poverty in astounding numbers.
Barak Obama backing a proposal to create a national database that will store the DNA of all individuals who have been arrested, even if they end up not being convicted of a crime.
The average American worker now paying literally dozens of different kinds of taxes each year.
Christians now being arrested and thrown in jail in some areas of the United States for quietly passing out Christian literature on public sidewalks.
Nearly half of all Americans now using prescription drugs on a regular basis.
Americans now spending large amounts of cash now viewed as “potential criminals” by the U.S. government in 2013.
New full body security scanners going into airports all across the United States now actually seeing through our clothing and producing very clear and very detailed images of our exposed bodies as we walk through them.
The U.S. government spending an amount of money equivalent to approximately 25.4 percent of GDP this year.
10,000 people making today 30% of the total income in the United States.
61% of Americans between the ages of 44 and 75 saying today that running out money was their biggest fear. The remaining 39% saying death was scarier.
28% of all U.S. households – according to one recent survey – having at least one person that is currently searching for a full-time job.
Major international organizations actually proposing that the United States start considering the adoption of a truly global currency.
One group of high school students making national headlines recently revealing that a security guard ordered them to stop singing the national anthem during a visit to the Lincoln Memorial.

It is clear that most of the challenges that are found in the US today and for that matter, throughout most of the developed world stem from a number of causes including but not limited to the facts that:

industrialization is maturing, which creates a huge systematic failure as there were no proactive measures taken to address it – middle income jobs are and will continue to disappear, which creates a huge hole in a society
values have shifted since the founding fathers, including a world of much more self-interest and creativity versus hard-work and benefit ‘for all’
many individuals with no conscience are now running government and businesses – on the surface they will give the appearance of caring but actions speak louder, and clearly others do not matter
financial system has become very mature and is run by brilliant self-serving individuals that have one goal – higher and higher profits short-term, which creates systematic failure and risks that sooner or later will break the system
governments inability to run such a large system, as what the US has become – goal is to get re-elected which creates huge problems given their perception (and maybe reality) that the populace wants benefits today, not the future
overall values of people have shifted from community to self; from giving to receiving; from kindness to aloof – we may be forced to change back
Unparalleled hubris and arrogance getting people in more trouble, and the US is unfortunately perceived that way – empires have fallen based on such beliefs
general level of unhappiness in society and people, shown by such things as the masses on anti-depressants to try to get through life; or the addictions in society including drugs, alcohol and television – all clearly not leading to a productive society

But perhaps most of all, our founders would be absolutely disgusted that the land where Americans could once be free to pursue life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness has become so tightly regulated and controlled that Americans dare not even squeak without the permission of the federal government.

Needless to say, our founders would certainly not understand many of our institutions or many of the advanced technologies that we have today….. But without a doubt they would be able to grasp how far we have fallen as a nation and how far we have strayed from the fundamental principles that they enshrined in our founding documents. The United States is a much different place today than it was in 1776, and unfortunately many of the changes have been for the worse.

The Founding Fathers did THEIR job, and now it is up to us to do OUR job!

Are you up to it?

Share your thoughts…

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