Myth or Fact? The Great Depression was caused by a failure of the free market and was resolved by government intervention.

False, I find the accusation that The Great Depression was caused by a failure of the free market. There are multiple things that contributed to period of economic struggle known as The Great Depression many of them being caused by the Government. I will expand on some of these topics throughout my blog article.

                The First step in which the government caused problems to come about in the market was when they created Expansionary Monetary Policy which is artificially low interest rates. The Federal Reserve created artificially cheap credit trying to create economic expansion. However, this caused for the stock market to become overheated causing the market to weaken.  Not only did the government weaken the market through trying to expand it but also decreased the supply of money flow in the economy which is known as Contractionary Monetary Policy.  This was very bad for the economy because when an economy is in a weakened state it is important that the money supply is increased so that interest rates are low. This is important because when interest rates are low and there is more money flow people are more likely to spend which in the long run helps create a strong market and national economy.  Not only was the government affecting the citizens of the United States but they also instilled what is known as the Smoot-Hawley tariff of the 1930’s.  That tariff placed the highest level of tariffs on imported good recorded in history. Most Economics would agree that is had a negative effect on the Nation’s economy. It’s obviously that if a tariff is too high other countries are not going to want to trade with us and even if they were trading with the U.S. they would most likely place a tariff back on the U.S. so in reality the Smoot-Hawley Tariff really did not help the economy in any way. At this point in time The Great Depression was already largely in place, so instead of the government letting the free market balance out itself the government felt the need to control the market even more. They did this by creating the National Recovery Act of 1933 and the Wagner Act 1935. These were acts which consisted of anti-business and pro-labor regulations which were largely controlled by the government. This had a negative effect on the economy because when small and large businesses are bombing most of the time the economy is too. This is because these businesses are creating products in which consumers would benefit from and want to buy which means money is being put back into the economy and is flowing freely.  However, when the government passes Acts that restrict businesses and when they create “jobs” such as clearing trees in a national forest and other jobs that really serve no purpose they aren’t creating money flow in the economy. Rather they are depriving there nation of its true potential to grow.

These are just a few of the example of why I think the government caused The Great Depression rather than helped the economy to recover. The implemented Acts that limited the chance for the economy to grow in technology and economically, and they restricted the money flow in the United States. Rather than controlling so much of the economic trade they should have just allowed the Free Market to balance itself out. Even if the Economy would have taken a little bit longer to balance itself out and recover the effects of a weakened Economy would have been much better than the effect of The Great Depression which was caused by the Federal Reserve.

Charter cities

Charter cities

            Charter cities are cities in which make it possible for a nation to grow and gain prosperity. However in order to make a charter city prosperous there are some guidelines or rules that should be implemented or followed. I believe that economic freedom, the right to owning property, and a free market economy are all things required to help charter cities prosper.

            I would like to start off by talking about the right to owning property. If we as men have the right to life, we should have the right to sustain that life through property. Not only is this important to help people want to come and live in our charter cities but it also increases the value of life style provided, helping to set up a free market economy. People have the right to pursue happiness and one way they can do that is through the right to owning property. If people have the right to owning property it helps the economy to have growth opportunities because in an economy there will always be scarcity.

            Secondly I would like to talk about the second rule I would make for my charter city, which is having my city be one of economic freedom. Economic freedom is created by a system of rules where property rights are protected. In countries with economic freedom they usually low tax rates, low amounts of regulation, and little corruption. This is an important thing to have in a charter city for multiple reasons one it helps create a strong free market economy and secondly it sets up and economy where growth can take place. One place that this would help growth take place is in technology. If you look at cities all over the world that have advanced in technology their standard of living is high. They have prosperity because they are creating faster and better ways to accomplish tasks. Their economies are strong because of their developments in technology. A free economy also gives the right of choice to the people causing opportunity costs. Like I mentioned there will always be scarcity in an economy but with this scarcity comes opportunity costs, which are the costs of making a choice. For example I am writing this essay therefore I am forgoing an activity. For every action that you make there is an opportunity cost, this helps to create a free market.

            Thirdly I would like to talk about a free market. This is in my opinion the most important element to make a charter city prosper. Why? You might ask. Well you see a free market creates a society in which all the things I have just talked about are made possible. How are they made possible? Well through a free market economy there is something called the “invisible hand.” the market forces of the price system through the invisible hand because the invisible hand guides each self-interested market person to act in the interests of others. When they act in the interest of themselves whether it be for money or status they are acting in the interest of others by creating a better product. When people act in the interest of themselves they try to put the best possible product out there and through this the market gets more competitive which creates better prices and products for society. A free market economy is a win-win solution if you want to have a prosperous economy. A free market economy also creates the opportunity for people to have to make choices, the right for them to have property, and it works well in free economies.

            The rules or standards stated above are the things that I would implement into my charter cities because I feel like they give the most opportunity for growth and prosperity. I also thing my rules are appealing to people so I believe that my charter cities would have an abundance of people willing to comply with the rule of my society. I think overall these are the main things needed to start what could become a very prosperous economy.

Essay Topic: what were some of the difficulites Madison proses and how he believed the constitution set axillary precautions to prevent them.

Now that America gained its independence there is some concerns when it comes to how the government will work. James Madison poses the concern in the article The Federalist #51, “In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.” The difficulty of having a federal government is making sure that not any one specific person or division becomes stronger than the other branches or divisions. James Madison also states in The Federalist #51 that, “The interest of the man must be connected with the constitutional rights of the place. It may be a reflection on human nature, that such devices should be necessary to control the abuses of government.” He says this because it is hard for men to rule over other men and not want to become greedy or power hungry. It is our human nature to want to become powerful and so James Madison saw that it was necessary to create come auxiliary precautions to prevent this from happening.

            James Madison felt that in order for our government to be efficient and to protect the rights and liberties of the people that precautions needed to be set, and the constitution does solve this problem. The constitution does this through checks and balances. Now there are multiple parts of checks and balances a couple of these main parts are the divisions of powers and the separation of powers. First let us talk about the division of powers. This is explained in the 10^th amendment of the constitution is states, “"The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." This causes the division between the federal government and the individual states governments. This is important to have because if we didn’t have this division of powers the government would decide everything leaving no power to the people. As citizens of the United States of America the power is supposed to lie with the people and if there wasn’t separation between state and federal government the people would have no vote or say in how the government was being run. The people would be oppressed and really wouldn’t have the liberties in which they just won from Great Britain.

            Secondly, the separation of powers is very important when talking about checks and balances because through the separation of powers our government is divided into three separate branches. These branches are; legislative, executive, and judiciary the reason these branches were created was to eliminate the chance for just one person or group to control all of the power. They wanted to avoid the risk of having a dictatorship so they created these groups which all control different systems within the federal government to make sure that not one specific group or branch could grow too strong. They call the system checks and balances because that’s what the branches do for each other, one example of this is when the legislative branch passes a bill or a law they have to send it to the executive branch to get it signed and approved as well. However, if the President does not sign the bill and he chooses to veto it revisions will have to be made or a 2/3 majority must be won. The branches have to go through certain step in order to make sure that the work they are doing is really for the best interest of the people of the United States of America, they cannot infringe upon our rights as citizens. The constitution sets many axillary provisions to that not one group or person can rule or take over all of the power. James Madison’s difficulties have been solved through the amendments of the constitution. The constitution has been written in such a way that the power will always be in the hand of people. The founding fathers prepared the constitution in such a way that the country could continue to grow but that the government ruling it could only obtain so much power. The founding fathers put forth many axillary precautions so that the people of our country would be protected for many years to come.  

Essay Topic:What about the U.S. Constitution was inspired and How is it that the U.S. Constitution was inspired?

The United States Constitution had many elements that were inspired by God so that the coming forth of the gospel could take place. In Doctrine and Covenants chapter 101:80 it says “And for this purpose have I established the Constitution of this land. By the hands of wise men whom I raised up unto this very purpose, and redeemed the land by the shedding of blood.”  All aspect of the constitution was inspired by God so the United States could be established and that the kingdom of god could go grow and be developed. One aspect of the constitution that was inspired was the land. Heavenly Father prepared a place for the gospel to grow and this land was America. In Ether chapter 2:10 it says, “For behold, this is a land which is choice above all other lands; wherefore he that doth possess it shall serve God or shall be swept off.” God had set forth a place in which the gospel could prosper. Now that Heavenly Father had prepared an inspired place and he also prepared inspired people that would liberate this country, This was pointed out by Dallin H. Oaks he said, “That God raised up wise men unto this very purpose.” This shows that the coming about of the constitution was no accident, that God had wise men that were for ordained to come to earth to do this job. Not only were the men prepared by God but they were wise men, showing that they had values and an education that helped them to fulfill their life mission. The coming about of such an inspired manifesto does not just happen there are things that have to occur before such inspiration can take place.

            One of the ways how the constitution was inspired was that the wise men that were raised up by god were prepared with knowledge; educational knowledge and also spiritual knowledge. Many of the founding fathers not only had studied and gained and obtained secular knowledge but growing up many of the wise men had spiritual beliefs. Through having a spiritual knowledge they were more susceptible to the spirit and able to receive revelation from God. These men were extraordinary men not only were they inspired but they were motivated to follow the inspiration. They were men of action; they had to act in righteousness in order to gain inspiration for heavenly father.  These wise men also were humbled by their tribulation through the abuse of Great Britain. Through the trials they were experiencing they were able to put aside things of the world and they were able to listen to the spirit of god.  This was the main purpose of how the constitution was inspired. As explained in this essay the constitution is inspired of god, as Ezra Taft Benson said in the talk “Our Divine Constitution” “I reverence the constitution of the united states as a scared document. To me its words are akin to the revelations of God. For god had placed his stamp of approval upon it.” Not only did god approve of the Constitution but he provided a way for it to succeed. The Constitution is surely an inspired document.

Essay Topic: The Moral Foundation for the American Struggle for Independence

During the struggle for American independence there were multiple moral foundations in which justified the colonist actions. In the history of the struggle for independence there are many moral reasons to rise up against the government, however in this short essay we will be talking about a couple of those moral foundations. We will be discussing three main moral foundations that were important in the fighting for independence. The moral foundations are first natural rights, second taxation without representation, and thirdly the rule of the law.

                First let us discus the importance of natural rights and why this was a basis for gaining independence. What are natural rights you might ask? Well natural rights are rights that are given to every human from there supreme creator. Every man has been given natural right by god; they are also known as inalienable rights. These rights include the privilege of life, liberty, and property. Everybody has the right to obtain these things throughout their life and for another to withhold those opportunities is inhumane and unjust. This is a great example of what the king was doing to the colonists. For one he was sending English solders over to invade the land causing people to lose their property after search and seizures took place. The king also imposed many high taxes causing many citizens quality of life to decrease, because they weren’t able to provide all the means necessary to take care of their families properly.  The king also corrupted the government by having the governors be in arms with him by bribery and persuasion causing the peoples liberty to be limited. The people were never able to pass laws because they would always be over ruled by either the king or the government. So as pointed out British rule was inflicting laws and regulations that were taking away people’s rights to their natural rights which go against not only the people’s moral beliefs but god’s law as well.

                The next moral foundations I would like to talk about is how England taxed the American colonies with high taxes and without representation. There are a number of times in which the king and parliament imposed large taxes on the colonies to receive higher revenue and they did this without proper representation. The main example of was the Tea Act in which took place in 1773. The Tea act was put in place so that Great Britain would gain higher revenue on trade goods they did this by makings the East India Tea Company the only Tea Company that could ship directly to the colonies making the prices much lower than the other companies making this business a monopoly in the colonies. This made it impossible for other countries to compete with the prices therefor England was also in control of America’s trade goods. This gave the king a lot of power over the colonies causing them to be under unjust rein. This is just another example of why the colonies were completely justified in their rebellion against the Great Britain. In reality the colonies really had no say in any law or matter they were completely controlled by the king and the parliament.  The king wanted complete dominion over the colonies and he had it. The colonies realized that they really did not have any right or privileges when it came to how the American colonies should be ran so they decided this was another great moral reason why they should resist the King.

                Thirdly the moral foundation of the rule of the law was broken. The rule of the law is a law that states that no one person should be above or exempt from the law. This statement even implicated that even if you are a king or ruler you still have to answer to the law if it is broken.  The law pretty much causes all humans to answer to their sins or actions no matter how or what degree of power you have. For instance King George the III felt that he should be able to control most of the power and that the power in the government should lie with the king. King George the III felt that because the Whigs held much of the power in the government when his father and grandfather ruled that they were not good rulers and he felt the need to change that. King George the III began to make laws and choices that took away the rights of others. He felt like he should be the one with ultimately all of the power and that he could inflict whatever laws he wanted to upon the colonies and that no consequences would be instilled upon him.  However this is wrong the rule of the law can be broken but the rule of law can never be diminished because ultimately god hold all the power and righteous judgment will eventually be placed upon you. The colonist also new that the king believed himself to be above the law and new that he would continue to be corrupt in his decisions. They also knew that the king would continue to ignore their peaceful oppositions to the laws, so they knew they had to up rise and go against the government.

                Although the colonists had many means and moral foundations to revolt against the government they still did not want to go against them. They were very hesitant at first about uprising, but after a long time of abuse and neglect the colonist new that they had natural rights and many appropriate moral foundations to justify their actions. Going against your own nations government is no easy task and many wanted to be loyal to the king but his judgments were so greedy that the colonist really had no other option but to secure their rights as human beings and to rise against Great Britain to gain their rights to life, liberty, and property.  They had plenty of moral foundations to help support them in their journey and struggle to American independence.