John McVey Posted September 28, 2007 Report Share Posted September 28, 2007 The US is switching to a new citizenship test. 53. Name one thing only the federal government can do. A: Print money Someone needs to reread their own Constitution and review their own national history. The US Constitution allows Congress to borrow money (I.8.2), coin money (I.8.5), and make laws banning counterfeiting (I.8.6) - but not the printing of paper notes. Notes printing was a perfectly legitimate part of private banking operations by what were called "banks of issue". The notes issuance sub-industry was steadily collectivised over the course of five decades starting from the about end of the Civil War, culminating in the formation of the FRS in 1913. The system is to this day STILL nominally privately owned, even though all and sundry treat it as a government body and the government largely controls who may run it. The government has to keep the organisation of the US central banking system that way precisely because the Congress was not given the power to print money. Perhaps someone should take up this with their local Congressman? (Not that I expect anyone would get far, mind) JJM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
softwareNerd Posted September 10, 2009 Report Share Posted September 10, 2009 (edited) Though I would not want a Q&A type test for citizenship or for voting under our current system, I think there may be a role for a voting test (not citizenship test) of this type in an ideal system. The objective of such a test would be to ensure that the voter has read the most fundamental parts of the constitution. However, the problem with this is that one wants no subjectivity in judging answers; also, one does not want the answers to change with time and with court interpretation. Here's my tentative solution. The constitution itself will list a small number of questions: perhaps only 5. For each, it will list 2 or three alternative answers, and will specify which one is the right answer. It will then specify that the test must be administered in a way that the questions and their possible answers are both presented in a somewhat random fashion to the potential voter. A voter must get all 5 right. If he fails, he can take the test again after some interval (say a year). This way, we can be sure that each voter has at least read at least 5 key explicit formulations within the constitution. (The test may be amended just like other parts of the constitution.) The questions would not cover things like the parts of government, but would be more fundamental: they would address key issue of what is meant by a right, whether the country is a democracy, and so on. I think one key role played by the constitution is as an ideological document. It is taught in schools -- even if indirectly -- as "our law" and "who we are". This slows the speed at which the constitution can be morphed. Highlighting 5 key concepts, and having wrong answers included as contrast, can help provide a keener focus to the consitution's ideology. In addition, this has the advantage of keeping really, really dumb people away from polls. Perhaps voters should even retake the poll every 20 years to ensure they have not forgotten! Edited September 10, 2009 by softwareNerd Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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