Great Depression

Many factors played a role in bringing about the great depression; however, the main cause for the Great Depression was the combination of the greatly unequal distribution of wealth throughout the 1920's and 30's, and the stock market crash that took place during the 1930's. The Great Depression was the worst economic decline ever in U.S. history, and one that spread to nearly the entire industrial world. Banks, stores, and factories were closed and left millions of Americans jobless, homeless, and penniless. Many people came to depend on the government or charity to provide them with food. It led to a sharp decrease in world trade as each country tried to protect their own industries and products by raising tariffs on imported goods. The economy was failing due to failure of the free market. The free market was not functioning the way it should have and therefore causing a lot a turmoil.
The Great depression ended through government intervention. Keynes argued passionately that governments should intervene in the economy to stimulate demand through public works scheme - higher spending and borrowing. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, created the programs known as the New Deal to overcome the effects of the Great Depression. These programs expanded government intervention into new areas of social and economic concerns and created social-assistance measures on the national level.

City Essay

In Meagantopia, a nation that I would try and have prosper and grow economically. The rules of my utopian society would be the based on the free-market system. The idea of private property would be respected and obeyed. Each person would have the right to a pursuit of happiness, or the right to gain and own property. There would be laws and regulations that protect and establish the idea of privately owned property. The laws would be there so that nobody's "pursuit of happiness" could be taken away or vandalized. The free-market system would have some regulations such as child labor laws and minimum wages.
Any man or woman could create a business or market and produce and sell as much as they want. It's important to regulate some though, otherwise monopolies could take place and economy would collapse. Self -interest would keep the economy being successful because each person is caring about the interest of themselves and being interdependent on other businesses, would benefit others. People want to make money, but other people are willing to pay for a product. Every person, caring about benefit of themselves, would unknowingly benefiting somebody else. The idea of opportunity cost would be the example of this. Somebody is willing to give up one thing, because the other is more valuable to them. In the end, every person wins. Each person is wealthier. Through this system, the whole economy is wealth and prosperous.

The Paradox

Madison spoke of a "paradox" in Federalist 51, that describes the problem of creating a functional government that can control those that are governed but also the government itself. "Men are not angels" and they can get power hungry. Over time one person (or persons) can become too powerful, and the government is no longer "For the people, by the people." Madison believes though that the constitution resolves this difficulty through auxiliary precautions. Impeachment gives the ability and right to the people to remove an unjust leader. Term limits help keep a leader in check and not allowed to serve in position for more than an allotted amount of time. The voting process also helps with the decisions made. The people then get to choose who represents them and how they will be governed. In Federalist 51, it talks about the Division and Separation of power which helps create and equal amount of power and the checks and balances to keep each other in line. The Division of power splits the rights and governing between the federal power and the state power. The Separation of power keeps branches on both federal and state levels creating, enforcing and judging the law. Not only can one branch of the federal check the others, but the states can check the central government. Although our government is not perfect, no one can be, the paradox is cured by our constitution.

Constitution Inspired

The Constitution of the United States of America was divinely inspired. Not only god mentioned in it, but he is acknowledged as the creator who gave us our natural and unalienable rights. Our heavenly father wants our rights to protected, and thus inspiring the constitution and inspiring a government to protect these rights.

The constitution includes principles like popular sovereignty, division of powers and rule of law that are cohesive with the lord. Dallin H. Oaks quotes “The rule of law and not of men. Further, there is divine inspiration in the fundamental underlying premise of this whole constitutional order. All the blessings enjoyed under the United States Constitution are dependent upon the rule of law.”

These principles help keep a balances and reasonable government, and in some ways “righteous.” It was so inspired through the miracle of the compromising. All the founding fathers were in the beginning argumentative and not willing to lift their opinion. But over time, the constitution was created and inspired to be what it was and is today.

Dallin H. Oaks, Ensign February 1992,
http://lds.org/ensign/1992/02/the-divinely-inspired-constitution?lang=eng

The Moral Foundation for the American Struggle for Independence

Without the revolution that the colonists started, we would not have the United States of America today. Although the colonists had patriotism towards Britain, they also were tired of the mistreatment and the string of events that led up to the breaking point. The colonists were morally justified in declaring independence from Britain. The colonies were almost as their own nation anyway. America had grown immensely apart from Britain culturally and politically. Instead of the colonies becoming an addition of England, it had become a new country in itself. When the Americas was first colonized and settled, America did not have a king, head figure or leader. The goal of the people in America was to create a new form of free government. Among the many complex factors that contributed to activating the American Revolution, two factors stand out most evidently which were, England's imposition of taxation on the colonies and the failure of the British to get approval of those being governed, along with the military measures England took on the colonists. Adding to these factors were the religious and political heritage of the colonies, and the limit of political freedoms by the British. Taxation was one of the greatest factors stimulating the American community to rebel in the years leading up to the American Revolution. One of the most striking examples of this kind of taxation was the Stamp Act of 1765. After many years of fighting, England badly needed revenues from their colonies, and they sought to acquire these revenues from the Americas. The Stamp Act of 1765 stated that people of almost any occupation were forced to buy stamps for their documents. In other words, the act executed a tax on every printed paper in the colonies. For example, a printer had to buy stamps in order to legally be able to distribute his publications. While the act itself was not so harmful to the economy, it was the idea behind the act (an attempt on the part of the British to help itself and raise revenues in the colonies) which drove the cause. The colonists also believed in the idea of natural rights which states every man has the right to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness." The British were continuously pushing this idea and taking away these rights. The British were taking away the idea of property, which is the pursuit of happiness in this case. They were taxing and taking away the ability of creating and having money or property in the taxing. The obvious example in this case would be the Mutiny (Quartering) Act of 1765. In this act, the colonists were forced to assist in maintaining and providing quarters for the British Army. The Americans were clear and concise on what they wanted: Whatever the reason or the type of tax it was, it could not exist without the agreement of the colonists who were being taxed. The colonist had no seats in the British parliament and therefore had no say or ability make decisions on their own standards of living. They believed in the right to self-govern. The final straw will come when the British government passed the Tea Act of 1773. The Tea Act lowered the price on this East India tea so much that it was way below tea from other merchants. But the American colonists saw this law as yet another means of "taxation without representation" because it meant that they couldn't buy tea from anyone else. This infuriated the colonial merchants, because a monopoly had taken away their capability to trade in the valuable tea. Not only did the economic results of the Tea Act anger the merchants, but also the idea of taxation without representation once again. The colonists did a complete boycott. The "Boston Tea Party" was in reaction to the anger of this new tax. The British imposed the “Insufferable acts” as a punishment towards the colonies after the revolt. The fact that there was a strong resentment towards the British by the colonists would be an understatement. When they were obliged to live with the people they resented, a spirit of revolution was evoked. There already existed strong feelings of resentment towards England due to the past taxation acts. The colonists were also in a sense, “left out.” They were across the ocean and were no longer an attached part of their home country. They were not involved in any decisions that parliament was making, which was directly affecting the New World. The idea of taking away the natural rights (the rights that we are all born with given to us by our creator, our god) is unjust. Taking away somebody else’s natural rights or limiting them is defined as crime. So the British were using legal crime and therefore justifies the idea of declaring independent from a government that is implementing unfair laws. The purpose of government is to secure and protect inalienable natural rights of the people. For their part, the people must obey the laws of their rulers. So, a sort of agreement exists between the rulers and the ruled. But, if a government persecutes its people with abuses over an extended period, the people have the right to resist that government, modify or abolish it, and create a new political system. This means that the people who are being ruled over have a right to choose how their government functions. If the government tries to do things without the people's consent, then that would be unjust. They were justified in breaking away from this unjust government that was not protecting their God given human rights, but were instead, actively working to destroy the very rights it was supposed to be protecting. Liberty, the idea of freedom and agency is a part of the natural or unalienable rights. With resistance and rebellion through protests, boycotts, and other political movements, independence was slowly becoming in reach. The conflicts between the two sides foreshadowed a war, leading into independence and an American Revolution.