Government

Elections recently finished here in the Dominican Republic. Praise the Lord!!! No more pick-up trucks stacked 10 feet high with speakers blaring political advertisements, no more political rallys in the middle of major thoroughfares, no more parades of cars, motorcycles, busses, and countless examples of the aforementioned speaker-filled trucks, no more new enormous billboards that contain only a 40 foot faceshot of the candidate with no other information, except the party he's running under (I say no more new billboards, because I'm pretty certain that the ones that are here now won't be taken down until the next elections come around). On that note, the government here funds the campaigns of those running for office. People are starving, sleeping on dirt floors in houses made of scrap tin and wood and whatever else can be found at the dump, yet millions of dollars are given to different candidates so that they can plaster their face on every possible billboard, lamppost, tree, wall, sidewalk, etc.

Wow, this has been an altogether negative post. I apologize for the negative nature of what I've written, to make it up, I've added a fun little list, describing different governmental models. If they'd made it this simple and clear in school, I would have done much better in government class

Governments explained

FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.
PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all of the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.
BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and put them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and eggs as the regulations say you need.
FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.
PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.
RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.
CAMBODIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. The government takes both of them and shoots you.
DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and drafts you.
PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.
REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.
BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. Then it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.
PURE ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to take the cows and kill you.
LIBERTARIAN/ANARCHO-CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.
SURREALISM: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.