I think that the basic obligations of our government were first described (in broad terms) in the Declaration of Independence. Then comes the Constitution and its Preamble. Several constitutional amendments also establish government obligations: elimination of slavery, allowing more of our citizens to vote, and the amendments that make up the Bill of Rights. If we look at the obligations, the duties, of government as expressed in the Declaration of Independence we can make our own estimate as to how well our government has done its duty. Here, slightly paraphrased and restructured, are the seven self-evident truths as set out in the Declaration:
- All men are created equal.
- They are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.
- Some, but not all, of these rights are: life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
- Governments are instituted among men to secure these rights.
- The powers of the government can come only from the consent of the governed.
- If any government fails in its duty to secure these rights the people can alter or abolish it, and create a new government.
- The people can structure the new government in any way that they please.
In the case of the “pursuit of happiness,” things can get tricky. Happiness is, to a great degree, in the eye of the beholder, but there are some things that most, if not all of us, need in order to achieve it or at least to feel as if we have a fair and honest chance to do it. And part of our happiness is the happiness of our loved ones, especially our children. So, we won’t be happy if we can see that our children are being denied the tools, the rights, resources, opportunities, and protections they need to build long lives worth living for themselves and their loves ones—who are also our loved ones, our grandchildren.
When I was born, the Great Depression was still going on, and its effects lasted long after the economists and politicians declared victory. My generation benefited greatly from the hard work of our parents who demanded good educations for us. We were poor people, and yet I managed to get a college degree in four years. At the end of that time I owed the government $2,000 which I managed to pay back without too much pain. The money I could earn at the usual jobs, fry cook in a burger joint, playing nine-ball for money in the local dives, sleeping over the garage at the local funeral home and answering the phone at night, mowing the campus with push mowers each week, bubbling hydrogen sulfide into the cooling towers of the campus air-conditioning systems, defrosting the walk-in coolers in the cafeteria, and the like, covered all of my college costs except the $2,000.
So, our economic and education systems made it possible for poor guys like me to work our way through—with a loan every year to help as needed. And an occasional scholarship helped as well. In my freshman year I attended a well-known private college and everything: dorm, tuition, books, food, clothing, trips home, etc. was paid for with a $1,900 scholarship. Right now it costs over $49,000 to attend that same college for a year.
One can’t mow enough grass to work one’s way through college any more, and the burger joints don’t need as many cooks any more—machines fry and assemble the burgers now.
So, what more, if anything, should our government do to give our population equal access to the rights, resources, opportunities, and protections that would give each of us a fair and honest chance to go as far in life as our talents and efforts can take us, thereby giving each of us a fair and honest chance to build long lives worth living for ourselves and our loved ones.
I think our government falls far short of meeting its obligations to us, the people. I also think that our current system of government, as it stands today, will never be able to meet its obligations to us and our posterity.
UPDATE: the comments so far indicate that the government has rarely, if ever, met its obligations. Why is that, you suppose? How can we fix it?