But there is not any universal law giving the Federal government the power to dictate standardization. They accomplish it through coercion. They force the states to apply the standards or have federal funds cutoff.
Well, if you want their money, you do have to listen to them. And as for coercion, every law is pretty much coercion. "If you don't listen, you pay a penalty, or you have benefits removed."
Standardizing overall is beneficial. Back when they were first introduced, the rail road tracks had different widths and that led to serious incompatability issues.
Imagine the voltage in every state is different. That would affect not only convenience, but commerce as well.
Or imagine that every state has its own currency.
Standardizing these things isn't stupid. Not standardizing is.
If it's not standardization, rather the way the rules are imposed that's the issue... well that's just reality. All authority, eventually, traces back to the barrel of a gun.
And whether you think Import taxes and tarriffs are anti free trade does not matter. As they were the only ways the Federal Government collected revenue until Federal Income Taxes started to be collected, during the civil war.
May have made sense back before the civil war, but now, import taxes and tarrifs don't help the local economy, rather it hurts it. Some degree of import duty is alright, but if it becomes a very important source of government revenue, it will start to hike and in the end, local businesses that reqiure imported goods to keep the prices of their products down will suffer.
Does the federal government or state or any government need to force you to wear a seat belt? You should have enough sense to do that on your own. The law of survival of the fittest will eliminate those that are to stupid to not wear seat belts eventually.
Good point. But doesn't hurt to get a little income from the idiots who don't buckle up.
These things lie within state jurisdiction, they are not in the federal governments area of responsibility.
And what if the Federal Government feels the State Governments are doing a lousy job that is not up to the standards that is required of the United States?
Don't bring up mail, the USPS is broke and will get worse. Postage for standard letter postage has gone up around 1,500% in 80 years.
Perhaps. But the price of everything has gone up and the speed of mail delivery has gone up too. So has the technology behind sending mail. You can't expect it to cost the same as 80 years ago.
So protecting the fat cats from themselves is a good thing?
Did not work to well for the lending industry in the U S.
Protecting the fat cats from destroying themselves is a good thing because they're so fat that they tend to take things around them with them... like our retirement fund and our jobs for example.
Might help if you understood better the relationship of the states to the federal government. The European Union emulates the role of the U S Federal Government.
Probably. I only lived in the DC Met area so my view of America is pretty heavily Federalized.
So basically if people want to have Tea Parties and try and stop the Federal Government from taking even more control, or want to turn back the clock, this is still supposed to be a free country.
Suppose so. But the goal is to keep America strong and make it a better place to live. The video had the "Join or Die" picture. That's a pretty accurate reason as to why the Federal government wants the states on the same page.