1. A big chunk of the issues leading to today's constitution were tax and debt relief measures being instituted by the states in response to populist movements.
2. The framers were mostly very wealthy and biased toward preservation of capital.
3. Many of the measures instituted in the constitution were designed to preserve wealthy Americans' property (slaves, for instance). Populist debt relief efforts made this an especially high priority.
4. The only way to get the states to ratify the constitution was to concede many populist goals (state legislators were largely very wealthy as well, and apparently stubbornly pessimistic about the constitution despite its immediate necessity).
The book goes into great detail on the reasoning and compromises made to create the constitution. I think you will find that politics rigidly define the operation of our markets.
I get where you're coming from but you have some insufficient assumptions about the context in which this particular complex system operates.
In short:
1. A big chunk of the issues leading to today's constitution were tax and debt relief measures being instituted by the states in response to populist movements.
2. The framers were mostly very wealthy and biased toward preservation of capital.
3. Many of the measures instituted in the constitution were designed to preserve wealthy Americans' property (slaves, for instance). Populist debt relief efforts made this an especially high priority.
4. The only way to get the states to ratify the constitution was to concede many populist goals (state legislators were largely very wealthy as well, and apparently stubbornly pessimistic about the constitution despite its immediate necessity).
The book goes into great detail on the reasoning and compromises made to create the constitution. I think you will find that politics rigidly define the operation of our markets.
I get where you're coming from but you have some insufficient assumptions about the context in which this particular complex system operates.