Clint Urick
American Foundations
Blog Essay 7: Charter city
If I were to create a new city it would be heavily based on American and religious values. I would not have a national religion, but I would make it clear that God is a part of this city. There will be no awards or punishments for belief or unbelief, but there will be respect for all. I would definitely establish a constitution like in America that would secure the natural rights of the people, particularly that of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. .
This would be essential in creating a free market society. This means that the government would not regulate trade or decide prices on goods and services. All of these things would be up to the people. This way supply and demand governs the market, instead of governments deciding on increases/decreases in prices.
The government would be involved just to enforce the laws and rules. It would make sure that people's rights and properties are protected, and it would make sure that people honor contracts they sign.
Education would be very important so that the people can improve society through their occupations and services. Everyone would be able to get a high school education, but they would have to work harder after that to get a college degree like it is in America. It would also be important for people to know that wealth is something created, and that anyone can achieve wealth if they work for it.
Equally important would be knowing that serving others serves yourself, directly or indirectly. The many different jobs around the city are what make it alive. The constant flow of money between people and businesses is healthy for an economy and that knowledge would be taught to everyone.
One thing that is detrimental to a society is wastefulness or selfishness. In my city we would try to avoid both of these things. To put an end to wastefulness I would try to have laws against unnecessary waste. Unnecessary waste being the throwing away of perfectly good products. Selfishness is not something that can be avoided without taking away people's rights, so I would just try to promote being good citizens who care about each other.
Really well written blog. I really liked most of your points, the only thing that I somewhat disagree with is the Selfishness. I think that the reason we have great products and services is because people are greedy and they want the best product to get the most money. That's only my opinion but other than that I really liked it!
ReplyDeleteThis was a good blog. It incorporated the major points of the class we have used up until now. I liked the broad prospective. The only thing I would recommend is that you could perhaps focus a bit more on each of your points and even use citations to further expound upon your ideas. Good essay. It definitely encompasses sufficient material and gets the ideas across.
ReplyDeleteI liked how you brought in ideas that were not explicitly discussed in class, you made the concepts easy to understand and it flowed well
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