Problem: Government*
A good government (one that increases the amount of happiness for most people) must balance the desires of individuals with the desires of the society in which the individual lives; think of government as a seesaw with individuals on one side and society on the other. The seesaw will always swing one or the other way, but not too much. This is its natural state of what I will call the “rights-relationship”. It is when the natural state of the governmental seesaw is changed artificially by individuals or society that problems become inherent. The seesaw starts seesawing radically.
It is important to remember that government is a philosophical idea and an objective reality, and at the same time it is defined by human limitations. So, a second problem is that the essence, the ultimate goal of government becomes biased, or corrupt unnaturally by human limitations instead of progressing towards its philosophical ideal. One might say that one of the jobs of government is to regulate stupidity: to lessen human limitations in order to progress towards social and philosophical ideals. It has failed in this.
Lastly, governments are defined by laws and so it would seem to follow that any law ought to protect the “natural state” of the rights-relationship, the natural state of the seesaw, between individuals and society. It is the concept of rights, after all, that we are discussing when we discuss the concept of government. However, laws are linguistic and so there will always be the problem of interpretation. It is when interpretation of the law is used for the above reasons that bias and corruption become problems.
*see problems 4 & 5
Solution: Enforceable Law/social changes/re-establishment of separation of powers/money
First, rights are defined by law. They are not “God-given”. Nor can they be assumed simply because we are human beings. That being said, any law must be written and enforced as to allow for the most rights for both individuals and society; both must compromise. In essence, laws are amendments, and as such are changeable (amendable) but the ultimate goal, the most rights for both individuals and society, must always be the end-result. Once in place, any and all laws must be enforceable and applicable to all individuals, the whole of society.
Secondly, unlimited lobbying and money must be taken out of governmental decision making. The ability of the rich (or any minority) to control the government must be ended.
Lastly, law is interpretable. Language is a tool of interpretation, and government is defined by the language that it uses. This is where the issues start most of the time. It is important to remember that interpretation itself is not a problem. However, the issue is interpretation that is unnecessary, rhetorical, biased or corrupt towards an end other than the natural state, or that amendable laws are arbitrary. This is typically caused by one or another section/part/power of the government gaining an upper hand through legal and sometimes illegal methods by re-interpreting law to their favor in lieu of the ultimate goal. To combat this inevitable problem, a true separation of powers is necessary. This will need to be done legally and be enforceable.
All of this may sound like a mess, but it is the nature of government. At the base of this mess must be a platform. What that platform is must be clear, but can change if enough individuals within a society deem it necessary (a legal majority). Enforce laws and change society, if needed, in order that laws may be enforceable and amendable if necessary.