Making America Great - A Practical Handbook for Improving our Society

Making America Great is a handbook and practical guide for ordinary citizens to make improvements in their communities. Based on a decade of research and talking with experts around the country, this book provides practical tips on how to make our communities better.

In this book you will learn how changes are made in a society, including the sequence of events and the key players in any successful movement. You will understand the types of people in any major societal shift, and how to work with each type of person to get the most out of your movement.

You will learn how to deal realistically with politics, economics, bureaucrats, and the criminal element while persistently developing your vision. You will learn how to lead people effectively, including managing teams and getting the most out of discussions. You will learn how get people to perform small easy tasks which will collectively result in large scale changes.

You will also be inspired as you read the reasons we should continue to make changes, why we should continue to act, and why we should continue to care. You will also be shown that making large scale changes are indeed possible.

This book also provides a series of targets for America – who we are, and where we should be headed. This book also provides role models of great Americans – people for us to emulate, people who embody everything discussed in the book. (If millions of Americans would follow role models such as these our society as a whole will develop closer to the ideal America).

Making America Great also provides a brief summary of practical tips for improving the most important areas of our society. These include education, government operations, and business practices.

And because humor is so important to our lives and our practical achievements, an entire chapter is devoted to humor in the workplace.

The original book was published in 1998, with subsequent editions. The book is landmark book - unique when first published - with very few comparable books since that time.

Making America Great is just as relevant and just as practical today as the initial edition. In the many years since the book’s first publication, the concepts have been proven again and again. Unfolding events such as the 912 movement, the Occupy Movement, major corporate fraud, and the results of the terrorist attacks have all been “predicted” by the original book. The themes and principles remain as truthful as ever.

Furthermore, in the last 10 years, the original book has spawned an entire series of books, collectively known as the Making America Great series, numerous blogs and websites, and at least two political movements. This is in addition to inspiring the many readers who have used the information to make changes in their own sphere of influence.

Making America Great is written as a handbook, with summary points and short chapters. Read this book and understand the practical tips for making real changes in our society...and in ways that are easy for any citizen to do.

Purposes of Government - Part 2

What is the purpose of government?

In a previous article we said that the primary purpose of government is to provide the structure for citizens to do what they desire and for those citizens to prosper. There is a secondary purpose of government, and that purpose is to hear and resolve competing interests.

Whenever a group of people get together there will always be competing interests and differing opinions. Key among competing interests are land use and water use. Other common conflicts include: business vs environment, business vs safety, freedom vs safety, and privacy vs security.

A government body must exist to hear all parties on each specific conflict. The government body should then reach a wise decision which satisfies everyone involved.

This government body must also set some basic rules regarding the issues so everyone can work together with minimal conflict.

This government body may be the federal legislature, a state legislature, a government agency, a city council, a regional board, or some other entity. All members of each government body should be elected by the people.

The authority of each body should be clearly defined, so that there is no confusion as to which government body has authority over the issue. However, this is a difficult task, with many factors to consider. (This issue will be explored later in subsequent articles).

           

A further subset of this government purpose (hearing and resolving competing interests) is the legal system. Competing interests are often on a personal level or company level rather than a community level. Also crimes such as theft and murder are as old as recorded history. Therefore the legal system must exist to resolve these conflicts.

The government can use a variety of methods in the legal system to resolve these disputes. The more informal methods include mediation and alternative dispute resolution. If these do not work then official lawsuits can be filed, where decisions are reached by judges and juries. In any case, a government must create a legal system which can hear and resolve conflicts on a more personal level.

Therefore the secondary purpose of government is to hear and resolve conflicts and differing opinions. This can be at any level: personal, community, state, or national.

There are two systems involved when hearing and resolving conflicts: the council system and the legal system. The legislature/city council system exists to discuss community level issues. The legal system exists to resolve personal conflicts which cannot be resolved the individuals themselves.

             

Purposes of Government

What is the purpose of government?

The primary purpose of government is to provide the structure for citizens to do what they desire and for those citizens to prosper.

Whether the government we speak of is national, state, or local, the primary purpose of any government is to provide the structure for citizens to flourish.

Main duties within this role are related to safety and security. The citizens should be able to rely on a basic level of safety. This includes military defense, border security, and other types of law enforcement. This includes health inspections such as the inspection of foods, drugs, and restaurants. Other safety areas which the government should manage include fire prevention, airline inspections, and cargo inspection.

The government must also provide the basic necessities for civilized living. These areas include: water (adequate supply, clean water), sewage treatment, and waste management. Without taking care of these basic necessities the citizens cannot prosper.

The government should also provide infrastructure or monitor infrastructure for business and communication. Specific topics in this area include: money (minting and printing money), roads, canals, energy, electrical power, postal service, and telecommunication services. These elements of infrastructure allow goods, services, and ideas to be exchanged. Such exchange of goods, services and ideas creates synergy which allows citizens to flourish.

Note that the private sector can provide some of these functions. However, if no private sector entity exists, and if the scope of the problem is larger than the family unit, then a government agency should be created to provide the service.

Each of these duties fall into the primary purpose of government, which is to provide an environment where the citizens can do as they wish and flourish as much as possible.