Off Topic — HabitableZone

Off Topic » in reply to Voting

re: Voting
Robert — (archived)

I don't know if this'll float to the top and catch your eye, but a couple of observations....

Note your fixation with money, in terms of its "redistribution", taxation, and government spending thereof; and your tendency then to consider money a primary determinant of the right to vote, and thus to have a voice in society. C'mon...don't you think that there are other concerns involved in running a complex modern civilization? Like war and peace. The bombs fall equally on rich and poor alike, and it seems to be the poor more than the rich who go off and fight.

Just as important is not limiting a say in economic policy using success at acquiring money as a determinant: If economic policy is made only by those who have already prospered, they'll rig policy to favor holding on to their wealth, and foreclose the possibility that the currently-poor might improve themselves and gain some money. Limiting suffrage on economic grounds destroys the promise of upward mobility.

Those are a couple of examples of what I see as a general principle: Limiting the right to vote is a very conservative thing in the most basic way--it rigs the game to preserve the status quo by institutionalizing power in the hands of those who already have it. That's just not consistent with the concept of a free, let alone democratic, society. Universal suffrage may have its drawbacks, but it's the only principle consistent with our values.

Log in or register to post.

The whole thread (96 posts)