Personally, I believe we've let our government become more representative of capitol and less representative of the people. Many of our laws are in place to insure profits (or tax breaks) for the companies and individuals who can afford to pay lobbyists. Here are a few examples: Insurance companies have managed to get mandatory insurance and mandatory seat belt laws enacted. The year that insurance became mandatory in Georgia (We had been promised that if everyone HAD to have auto insurance then overall costs would go down because we'ld no longer be paying for uninsured motorists!) insurance premiums doubled for me. A guaranteed demand negates the supply side of the equation. While seat belts laws have in fact saved lives, it has also saved the insurance companies millions of dollars but that savings went to investors, not customers.
   You can incorporate your business so if it fails, your personal assets are not forfeit. What about company owners who pay themselves excessive salaries for a few years while bankrupting their companies? Why isn't there a limit on the amount of assets protected to prevent this type of unethical robbery?
Then we have the tax code which favors the wealthy. If you can afford a lavish overseas vacation, all you need do is have one business meeting during that time and the entire costs can be deducted from your taxable income.
Individual liberties are taken in the name of the greater good. People are incarcerated because of actions that have the potential to harm others, regardless of whether or not anyone else is actually hurt by them. Morality can NOT be legislated. Drug use and prostitution have been around for thousands of years. Instead of helping educate prostitutes so they have other means of income, or offering counseling and rehab for drug users, we choose to incarcerate them. This harms society in 3 ways: 1)It reduces the chances for those people to get jobs with adequate income to survive. 2)It increases our taxes because of the increased need for law enforcement and prisons & 3)We destroy families by removing a parent with a problem, increasing the likelihood the children will grow up in poverty and experiencing the exact same problems.
    The way government should work is this: We should hold people accountable for the actual harm they do, not punish them for actions just because they have the potential to cause harm. We should have a single tax rate that only increases 1% per 10k of income whether that income be earned, capitol gains or inherited.
    We can now communicate instantly across thousands of miles. We should no longer be having representatives crafting laws and having the only votes on them. Their job should now be to help craft legislation suggested by their constituents. Then the entire country, state or county should have a vote on them. I agree with the supreme court that we should be allowed to spend money on commercials advocating our beliefs... but those same advertisements should have to disclose exactly who pays for them, instead of allowing them to hide behind names of secondary organizations. (How many of us would have voted for free lifetime healthcare and full retirement for representatives after serving 6 years or less had it been put to a nationwide vote?) If you'ld like to discuss it further feel free to contact me