Twenty years ago our local school district amalgamated merged with the adjoining school district with the goal of reducing spending.
It was like getting married. Two people can live as cheaply as one ... it just costs twice as much.
So for a period of time there were many duplicated positions which were eventually consolidated but the remaining employee was paid more because they now had more responsibilities. One hundred years earlier the original school board had two people - the one in charge and the person who actually did the work. The parents at each school were hands on and supported the one or two teachers in these one room schools. By the way the school age population in this area was higher than it is today.
My opinion of governments are that they consolidate power into the hands of too few people and in the process disenfranchise most of the population. I reported in an earlier post that Income Tax in Canada was introduced 100 years ago as a measure to cover the war debt. At the time the population of Canada was 1/4-1/5 of the current population. The employed 40 people to administer Income Tax for 8 million people. Today the government employs 40,000 to administer the Income Tax for 36 million people.
You mentioned that the debt is crushing the country. Governmental Debt is an illusion. Who prints the money? If the people in charge wanted to eliminate the debt, they could just print money. Of course I hear echos of outrage saying that it would spark hyperinflation ... please review this site having to do with the various types of money supply in the USA. This chart shows you a quick snapshot of the most liquid money supply:
In a couple of years after 2012, the government inflated this part of the money supply not quite doubling it. Did the USA experience massive inflation? In the last twenty years
The money supply has quintupled yet where is the hyperinflation?
I am Canadian so it doesn't matter to me but there is an easy solution to correct the issues in the USA - but it would take a change in the USA constitution.
- Laws are meant to represent an agreement within a society on how to "get along". We have the technology to select people at random from the population (along the lines of having to appear for jury duty). Political parties would no longer have a role of voting for something but instead of promoting their positions to these random (and importantly anonymous) people. Once the positions have been given, these people would vote on the laws. (This is a variation on something Alvin Toffler proposed decades ago).
- Budgets would be allocated by the population in general using cryptocurrencies. People could specify percentages they would like to spend of their money on the major areas: education, healthcare, infrastructure, security etc. Once again the various parties would promote their views to the population but each person would decide how they would want their money spent.
- Eliminating all personal Income Tax. Very rich people have lawyers and accountants who can help them avoid paying taxes. Very poor people cannot pay taxes because they have no income. Even living outside of a cryptocurrency world, income taxes are minuscule in comparison to printing more money currently being done by the central and major banks in the world.
- Introducing Universal Basic Income/Dividend. Every study that been conducted on pilots with a universal basic income is that health and education improved by setting a base amount that people live on. This is not communism. My preference is to call this a dividend not income. People invest their resources and often their lives to create the societies in which they live. If a person invests something then they should be entitled to a dividend from that investment. Norway for instance accumulated investments in the stock market which just based on a 1 percent interest on the investment would provide everyone in Norway with a couple hundred dollars per month. Over time, this investment could be several hundred dollars per month - vastly improving the lifestyle of their entire society.
Not trying to argue but to clarify some items here. Yes hyperinflation is happening across US. Food and housing prices are a lot higher now than 2012. The reality is inflation is happening while wages are stagnate. The news never really talk about any of these issues. The reality is every dollar that has been printed has not help the standard of living in the US.
Money printing is debt. This must stop and all dollars taken back by the government. Of course this will never happen. Majority of people who have power have much more to lose if the dollar fails so they do what is best for their own interest. We citizens of the world need to extract ourselves out of this system and the first thing is to accept crypto instead of fiat. It is are salvation.
Capitalism is focusing on getting as much money and as little effort as possible. That is why people sue or file complaint towards one another. It is the fastest way to make a buck. When ever you need to bill someone for something bill them as much as possible for the biggest amount of profit margin as possible. Money talks and that is all it matters in capitalism. Morals and honesty is thrown out the window. Don't get caught cheating and that is fair play. Look at the latest US Michael Flynn. This is what US is becoming.
I think we are on the same page just expressed differently.
While I have never personally experienced hyperinflation, I have friends that did in Ukraine. They lived on those packages of soup noodles because they were not able to buy anything else. Normally inflation happens because of actions by the government... the last episode in the United States (and Canada) was because someone had a great idea to strive for full employment. If everyone is employed, companies need to compete to get employees. They raise wages and raise prices to pay for increased wages.
In recent years, the governments have been trying to stimulate the economies by reducing interest rates (now is in negative territory). The economies are stretch so thinly that a slight increase in the interest rate massively negatively affects the economy.
Part of the problem is that the people elected to the government and make decisions about the economy know very little about economics. The current prime minister of Canada (Trudeau) has a bachelor of arts degree in literature. In contrast his father first obtained his Law degree, attended Harvard for a masters in Political Economics, and attended London School of Economics for his doctoral degree. Just because one has the same last name doesn't give the same abilities or knowledge. While getting a bachelor degree in economics (à la current president of USA Donald Trump) is the first step in understanding economics. This doesn't mean that the decisions that are made would be in the best interest of the people in general - instead (eg a tax cut) might be in the interest of the family and friends of the people in power.