what safeguards were written into the constitution to guard against any abuses of our own self interests?

Answer 1

The safeguards in the constitution - like the bill of rights - were included to gaurd against abuses of government power.

The establishment of a federal government at all could be viewed as acknowledging the need to guard against 'abuses of self interest.' Which could be ovious crimes like theft, or threats to the common good, from polution to sedition.

Answer 2

None really. The constitution was adopted as a guidelines to set up a government that would bring individual states into a union, or republic, to make the whole stronger than the parts so to speak. The constitution is a framework for government control and restraint and a guidelines for what the federal government may do while leaving the rest to the states. The only thing that the federal government can do to protect us from ourselves would be in the form of an amendment, such as prohibition, an end to slavery, women's suffrage. Protecting us from the self interest that is not our own , like a greedy ceo or a greedy politician is then left to us. The constitution does not forbid CEO's / politicians from becoming billionaires unless we vote them out or can prove charges against them. However, each state also has it's own constitution and set of laws that may or may not protect us. So, the safeguard that is in the US constitution is actually the allowance of the states to protect its citizens without the interference of the federal government.

Answer 3

The Second Amendment... the right to keep and bare arms... The government can't enslave an armed population and the framers of the Constitution knew it.

Answer 4

14th Amendment. Equal protection clause.

Answer 5

Not enough