Originally posted by BMC21113
-I do not think that new leaders should be selected by old leaders, but rather, leaders are elected the same way. What I propose changing is the standard one vote per individual. Here I suggest that all American citizens be automatically granted a "level 1" voting rights. A level 1 voters identification allows all American citizens over 18 years of age one vote. Other citizens would be eligible to increase their voting potential to that of a level 5 voters identification card. This would be determined through a "merit" system such as the one which I spoke of earlier. A level 1 is worth 1 vote....a level 5 is worth 5 votes......
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The difficulty there is how you decide who is qualified to have how many votes. Should people with university degrees have more votes than people without? Should people with children have more votes than people without? Should the wealthy have more votes than the poor?
In all of whose, why and why not? Who is entitled to decide what the rules should be?
-The basic problem with allowing all citizens one equal vote is that regardless of how qualified a person is, they have the same vote as a person who is extremely unqualified to make decisions.
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You write as though all decisions were about technical matters which some people have more experience or knowledge of than others. The most important decisions aren't.
The most important decisions are things like 'should education be free?' Or should health services be rationed so that the rich have better access than the poor? Or should civil servants have better pensions than the rest o the population? Or should the country go to war to stop Iraq possibly getting nuclear weapons? Or should home manufactures be protected against imports, thus putting up their prices? Or should there be an established religion?
All of these are essentially moral/ethical questions to do with how the goals of society should be set. They're not technical questions. No amount of education or experience will make you better qualified to decide whether Islam or Christianity should be the official state religion or whether there should be an official state religion at all.
In setting the goals of society then every individual has as much right as any other, because they are purely subjective choices.
By "qualified", I am speaking of competent and successful people who understand what is good for the future of their country.
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How do you define the 'good' future of the country? And if you should define the 'good' why should you have more right to do so than anyone else?
'What is good?' is central to the whole political problem. And no-one is better qualified to answer it than anyone else.
By allowing those who actually know what they are talking about to have adequate weight in our electoral process would result in a higher success rate of choosing the proper represenatives and determine the best course for our future.
-Now, I favor Democracy over all forms of government in the world today....but as the topic states, the Democratic process has flaws. I agree with this statement. I am only suggesting improvements on our current system, and by no means am I trying to create some kind of Monarchial or Oligarchial rule, but rather feel that certain people deserve to have more "say so" than others.
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That is a pure oligarchy. It's what oligarchy means.
It would be hard to disagree with this idea. Also, my proposal for "levels" of voting rights would also encourage others to work hard
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You see...there you go imposing your own values. Why should people be encouraged to work hard? What's 'good' about working hard? Maybe we should be trying to eliminate the need for work at all.
Certainly much of the time society nowadays simply cannot provide enough work for everybody: so what are the unemployed going to work hard AT?
and earn their rights. In this system, if you felt that you were not being heard, you actually have the potential to increase your influence in the electoral and decision making process........
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Edited by gcle2003 - 20-Aug-2006 at 06:28