The members of the executive and judiciary departments are few in number and can be personally known to a small part only of the people.
James Madison in Federalist No. 49
Tag: America
The costs add up
What are the chief sources of expense in every Government? … The answer, plainly is, war and rebellions – the support of those institutions which are necessary to guard the body politic, against those two most mortal diseases of society.
Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 34
Parchment is insufficient protection
… a mere demarcation on parchment of the constitutional limits of the several departments, is not a sufficient guard against those encroachments which lead to a tyrannical concentration of all the powers of government in the same hands.
James Madison in Federalist No. 48
On broad representation
… all classes of citizens should have some of their own number in the representative body, in order that their feelings and interests may be better understood and attended to.
Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 35
How a constitution is breached
… the executive department had not been innocent of frequent breaches of the Constitution. … The great proportion of the instances were either immediately produced by the necessities of war or recommended by Congress or the Commander in Chief. … In most of the other instances, they conformed either to the declared or the known sentiments of the legislative department.
James Madison in Federalist No. 48
An ideal tax system
… the most productive system of finance will always be the least burthensome.
Alexander Hamilton in Federalist No. 35
Does this include a political party?
The accumulation of all powers legislative, executive, and judiciary in the same hands, whether of one, a few or many, and whether hereditary, self-appointed, or elective, may justly be pronounced the very definition of tyranny.
James Madison in Federalist No. 47
A quick look at labor and income changes in America
Some realities and trends I find disturbing, as gleaned from Harper’s Index over the past few years:
- Hypothetical median income of full-time U.S. workers [2020] if income were distributed as evenly as it was in 1975: $92,000. Actual median income of full-time U.S. workers: $50,000. (Guess which direction the differential is skewered.)
- Percentage of U.S. manufacturing jobs that required a bachelor’s degree in 1983: 14. That required one in 2018: 31.
- Percentage of Americans who believe that a four-year college degree is not worth the cost: 56. (Are employers who expect a degree holder for a low-paying job getting a free ride?)
- Portion of all U.S. student-loan debt that is held by women: 2/3. (Does that reflect gender pay differences in similar jobs?)
- Percentage of unpaid taxes that are owed by the richest one percent of Americans: 70.
- Average percentage of their fortunes that the twenty richest Americans gave to charity in 2018: 0.8.
- Factor by which the average cost of a home in the United States is higher than the average salary: 8. (And the guidelines I grew up with said don’t go over 25 percent of your income. So now it’s twice that?)
- Percentage of Americans aged 18 to 29 who live with one or both of their parents: 52.
- Rank of workers 75 or older among the fastest growing demographics in the U.S. workforce: 1.
- Percentage increase since 2020 in the amount of work employees are doing outside of the nine-to-five workday: 28.
No House of Lords
… the federal senate will never be able to transform itself, by gradual usurpation, into an independent and aristocratic body; we are warranted in believing that if such a revolution should ever happen from causes which the foresight of man cannot guard against, the house of representatives with the people on their side will at all times be able to bring back the constitution to its primitive form and principles.
James Madison in Federalist No. 63
All politics is local
Measures will too often be decided according to their probable effect, not on the national prosperity and happiness, but on the prejudices, interests and pursuits of the governments and people of the individual States. … The great interests of the nation have suffered … from an undue attention to the local prejudices, interests and views of the particular States.
James Madison in Federalist No. 46
Jnana's Red Barn 