This TED Talk opened my eyes to the situation that our government is in. Before watching this video, I did not pay much attention to what was happening in our government.
(Lessig)
As Lawrence Lessig describes in his lecture, our government is dependent on investors. These investors choose who runs in the general election and who the public will get to vote on. In addition to the investors, Congress spends a great amount of time trying to get their own party in power. To get their party in power, Congress must get money from investors. In order to keep that flow of money from an investor steady, Congress must change their views to conform to the investors.
In simpler terms, the reforms past are not for the public's interest but rather for the investors. Of the American population, only about 0.5% is an investor meaning that the smallest proportion of the public can block reform. And the only solution to fix this corruption is to get the public involved. |
| How Corrupt Are Different US Institutions And Groups in Society? |
You may be wondering why the public is the one responsible for fixing corruption of the government.
Well, with corruption in the government, no reforms will happen that the public is pushing for, such as environmental reforms, because the small investors funding the government are not interested in problems such as those, but only reforms that benefit them. People need to gain the courage to stand up for what is right.
But there is one problem. Many people are scared to stand up because they fear retaliation, shows a survey conducted by Transparency International. Many different people have different solutions to combat corruption and Lessig's idea seems like the best starting point for our country.
Lawrence Lessig's solution is to have the public push for Congress to spend less time raising money that is being funded by a larger percentage of Americans. As a starting point to fix the government this would be good, but we also need to stop have investors as the only source for reform policies.
In my opinion, just because someone doesn't have enough money to donate to Congress, doesn't mean their opinions and reform ideas are less valid. Those people, and frankly all Americans, should get a say in reform policies without having to pay large sums of money.
Works Cited
"Corruption in the USA: The difference a year makes." Transparency International
, 17 Dec. 2017 , www.transparency.org/news/feature/
corruption_in_the_usa_the_difference_a_year_makes. Accessed 20 Nov. 2019.
"How Corrupt Are Different US Institutions and Groups in Society? -US 2017 ."
Transparency International, Transparency International , 12 Dec. 2017,
www.transparency.org/news/feature/
corruption_in_the_usa_the_difference_a_year_makes. Accessed 21 Nov. 2019.
Chart.
Lessig, Lawrence. "We the People, and the Republic we must reclaim ." TED , Feb.
2013, Longbeach, California . Address.
The idea of pushing Congress to change is a good one, but are there any specific ideas that could help the public and citizens to do that? Term limits, for example, or campaign finance reform? Certainly this isn't a new problem, so why do you think it is having such a strong impact now? What has changed?
ReplyDeleteNice blog! I like the use of a graph to better display the information you are trying to convey. To strengthen your argument you could talk about different ways people could get involved to help with corruption in government.
ReplyDeleteFirstly, exposing the public to what is happening because many people might not know what is happening. Secondly, citizens should join or start a group of their own to spread to word about what is happening. The more that the public knows the more they will want to take action. Once a group has a large enough voice then reforms to the government can begin.
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