We the Collective (Update 1)

In our Declaration of Independence the word "we" appears ten times with the most famous line using it is:

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

What is the definition of we: First-person, plural personal pronoun.

What is the definition of plural: adj, 1. Composed of more than one member, set, or kind. 2. Grammatical form that designates more than one of the things specified.

In the preamble of our Constitution it has this neat little saying that starts with the word "We":

("We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.")

When we say, "We the People", that is not saying, I the person or the individual. It is saying we as in us, or as in team, or even one could say as a collective.

Now we need to now define the word collective: a group of people who share or are motivated by at least one common issue or interest, or work together on a specific project(s) to achieve a common objective.

So by using the word "we" throughout our Declaration of Independence and in the preamble of our Constitution shows that our founding fathers of this country were a "collective". They were a smaller collective of individuals working on the behalf of the overall collective of the thirteen colonies to free them from the tyranny of the British Monarchy. Each colony themselves were representative of their very own collectives. So I guess being a collective is not a bad thing.

Problems happen though when people try to conflate "collective" with the terms for the Socialistic or Communistic political economic regimes that have gone bad, like the old Soviet style. For a better term, use Stalinism, which isn't a collective at all but a extreme conservative authoritarian political dictatorship that gives no power to the people or collective economically or politically. It is the same style that was exported to countries like Cuba, North Korea and Viet Nam and a similar style practiced by mainland China. Being a collective means its being democratic. The old Soviet Union and Communist China aren't collectives but authoritarian dictatorships. True Socialism is a system of social organization that advocates the vesting of the ownership and control of the means of production and distribution, of capital, land, etc., equally by the community as a whole. We have a few farmers coops in the U.S. who operate in this way in defense against the factory farms.

There is some partially or hybrid Socialist States that work very well today. A good example is Norway, highest taxes in the world, ranges from 43 to 68 percent, with about 50 percent rate on the middle class. They provide for all social issues for free and have the most happy people in the world IAW a few recent surveys. Norway has what you would call a mixed economy. It contains both private-owned and state-owned enterprises and combines elements of capitalism and socialism. It is a mix of market economy and planned economy characteristics. It provides for free the two main pillars of happiness, health and education. People can go to college for free right up to the Doctorate level. While attending school the government pays you a salary. Beside the free health care, you also get paid for up to 6 months of either maternity or paternity leave. Their work week only averages 37 hours and everybody gets 6 weeks paid vacation.

Even though the people of Norway are both heavy drinkers and smokers, according to The CIA World Fact book for 2007, they have the 14th longest life expectancy and 2009 they are 23rd. The United States was 29th in 2007 and 49th on the list in 2009. For infant mortality rates per 1000 live births, using The CIA World Fact Book for 2007, Norway rates as the 205th out of 221 and in 2009 rates 214th out of 224 countries. The United States comes in as 180th out of 221 in 2007 and 180th out of 224 in 2009. Remember the higher number the better on this one.

So the more I see about the happy people of Socialist Norway, and it being considered a collective may not be such a bad thing.

Maybe We of the Collective of the United States, which as James Madison describes in Federalist 10 as a Representative Democracy, should pay a little more attention to how the collective of Norway does things. Especially on Health care and Education....

Iratus-aves-hominis