The following video got us to thinking:

(Alabama – 40 Hour Week – August 1990)

If the powers that be would only give the American people a chance, we’d be fine. In fact, we’d be better than fine.

The problem, if course, is that the corruption, greed and power hungry elite are doing everything they can to dismantle our great nation.

Rather than leaving Americans to innovate and work hard, it seems that they take every opportunity to strip us of our wealth, determination and liberty.

Some ideas that might help put us back on the right track:

• Stop seizing our hard earned money. To the government, money is nothing more than just a way for politicians to reward their constituents and lobbyists. To the average Joe and Mac, it’s a representation of our time and energy. Every dollar of personal income that is seized by force through taxation is an attack on our liberty. Taxation is slavery. In today’s America, a refusal to pay your “fair share” is met with seizure of all of your personal belongings, destruction of your financial credit profile, and incarceration. The left and right regularly argue about raising taxes or lowering taxes, as if those are our only choices – as if the negotiations should center around one or the other. Here’s a third choice: ELIMINATE PERSONAL INCOME TAXES completely. Get the government out of our personal financial lives. It would do wonders for economic growth, innovation and entrepreneurship. [We realize the government needs a little spending money. As such, a consumption based taxes seems most appropriate.]
• Stop the stealth taxation through depreciation. As if a direct tax on our income isn’t enough, the government somehow finds it beneficial to allow the implementation, by our Federal Reserve, of inflationary policies that are designed to deflate and decimate the purchasing power of our hard earned money. It’s difficult enough trying to make a living with two parents having to work 40 hours or more per week. Rather than maintaining a stable currency with a stable purchasing power to make it a bit easier on us, our savings are being eroded year after year. Americans are left with no choice but to put money into stock markets or other risky investments in the hopes that their savings will grow into a viable retirement package. Inflationary policies lead to a lifetime of financial stress.
• Get your nose out of small business. Taxes and government intervention are devastating. It makes absolutely no sense, as Porter Stansberry points out in his most recent commentary, in which he explains how government makes the rules and forces you to take them on as a partner who risks nothing but takes everything it can : ” Now in return for my rules, I’m going to take roughly half of whatever you make in the business, each year. Half seems fair, doesn’t it? I think so. Of course, that’s half of your profits. You’re also going to have to pay me about 12% of whatever you decide to pay your employees because you’ve got to cover my expenses for promulgating all of the rules about who you can employ, when, where, and how. Come on, you’re my partner. It’s only fair.”
• Don’t force Americans to buy health care. When it comes to health care, we’re told by many politicians that the only fair thing to do is have everyone contribute to the system according to their ability so that every one who needs it has health care coverage. As if the existing tax rates weren’t enough, we are now expected to shell out even more money to make sure the “less fortunate” have health care. Here’s a novel idea: allow health insurance companies to compete across state lines. Second, require pricing transparency. Hospitals charge three different rates: the government health insurance rate, the private health insurance rates and cash rates. Third, require medical providers to do what other businesses do: post health care prices publicly so that patients know what they are paying. There is most certainly a problem with the health care industry in America. Forcing Americans to buy health care through Federal mandates and the threat of imprisonment cannot be the sole answer to this problem. Certainly there is a more Constitutionally agreeable way of making this work.
• Start Prosecuting. Pappy Slavo always used to say “If you want to stop crime in America, start in the White House.” In today’s America, our policing apparatus is wholeheartedly focused on making sure the proles comply with policies handed down from the top. We have Presidents who can lie under oath with no consequences. They can even declare war and send thousands of our soldiers and civilians to their deaths without the Constitutionally required consent of Congress. Politicians can accept millions upon millions of dollars in “donations” in exchange for political favors without so much as a peep from so-called ‘ethics’ committees. On top of that, those who perpetrated the largest financial crisis and scam of all-time not only got to go free, they were rewarded with billions of dollars in bonuses and bailouts. In a free country, there must be rule of law.
• Put Americans First. We understand that the entire world is in shambles, because like us, they have all of the same problems mentioned above and similar political elites making the decisions. But rather than emulate the disastrous policies of other countries, we should stick to what we know best: allowing Americans to live their lives, have their liberty, and pursue their happiness. We realize that the Chinese might be a bit upset if we forced import tarriffs on their slave-labor created products. But by not doing this, we destroy American jobs every single day. We also realize that northern African and mid eastern nations are broke, but forgiving their debts and sending them more money only further burdens Americans with debt, which leads to more taxation and currency depreciation. The world is a mess – we get it. But our first and foremost responsibility is America. Rather than starting thousands of miles across the globe and trying to fix problems there, let’s start here and work our way out. Makes sense to us.

Naturally, there are difficulties in implementing such policies, and these are only a limited set of ideas and starting points. But perhaps if we put our focus on some of these core issues facing America, we can start making real change, and giving people real hope that something better is coming tomorrow.

We want the 40 hour work week. We’re proud to work hard for that long and more. We just need to know it will be for something other than just empowering our government and benevolent leadership.

Hat tip Dane