20 Ideas The We Need To Steal From The Rest Of The World

[Paradoxum]

Distractify | 20 Ideas The US Needs To Steal From The Rest Of The World

I thought many of these were good, or at least interesting.

 

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

Compulsory voting?!

 

[Paradoxum]

Compulsory voting?!

Would it be that bad?

 

[Chesterton]

How about "Free hats for fat people"?

 

[SteveB28]

Would it be that bad?

We have compulsory voting in this country - have had for as long as I can remember. Doesn't seem to interfere with personal freedoms any more than compulsory road laws.

One positive is that we don't seem to be drawn into the situation of spending obscenely large amounts of money to encourage citizens to come out to vote. Another is that, with everyone voting, we get a much more accurate analysis of the 'will of the people'.

And we do make it easier for most people to vote. All of our elections are held on Saturdays.

 

[Gottservant]

We have compulsory voting in this country - have had for as long as I can remember. Doesn't seem to interfere with personal freedoms any more than compulsory road laws.

One positive is that we don't seem to be drawn into the situation of spending obscenely large amounts of money to encourage citizens to come out to vote. Another is that, with everyone voting, we get a much more accurate analysis of the 'will of the people'.

And we do make it easier for most people to vote. All of our elections are held on Saturdays.

We actually make it a bit of a celebration too, with most voting centers holding a BBQ on the day.

 

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

Given a choice between jail or participating in an election against my will, I would probably choose jail.

 

[SteveB28]

Given a choice between jail or participating in an election against my will, I would probably choose jail.

Seems a rather petty and unnecessary reason to go to prison (the penalty here is actually a fairly moderate fine). And there is no compulsion to 'participate' in the election. You can hand in a blank ballot form if you wish. The only compulsion is that you attend.

And to be blunt, I don't think a citizen of a country in which barely a third of its members bothered to turn up to their last election should have too much to say about the appropriateness of the electoral process.

I think it is the height of cynicism when I read that significant sections of your political leadership relish the prospect of lower voter participation, in the expectation that they would enjoy greater electoral success.

I think some people get a little overworked and confused about the relativities of 'rights' versus 'responsibilities'.

 

[LOVEthroughINTELLECT]

Seems a rather petty and unnecessary reason to go to prison (the penalty here is actually a fairly moderate fine). And there is no compulsion to 'participate' in the election. You can hand in a blank ballot form if you wish. The only compulsion is that you attend.

And to be blunt, I don't think a citizen of a country in which barely a third of its members bothered to turn up to their last election should have too much to say about the appropriateness of the electoral process.

I think it is the height of cynicism when I read that significant sections of your political leadership relish the prospect of lower voter participation, in the expectation that they would enjoy greater electoral success.

I think some people get a little overworked and confused about the relativities of 'rights' versus 'responsibilities'.

Things are going to turn out the way that the powerful want them to.

I am not going to participate in an election under the illusion that anybody's vote influences outcomes.

My participation in elections is symbolic.

Coercing me into participating in an election is making me a pawn under the control of the powerful. Going to jail would be my way of voting--a way to not have my relatively little power taken away.

 

[pittsflyer]

Compulsory voting sounds aweful, what about people that live in semi remote areas and dont have the means to get to a poling place for something that is statisticly insignificant. What about people that are busy doing important things and know that the odds of their vote mattering is so vanishingly small as to not matter but if they spend an hour engaged in what is equivalent to the power ball they will get behind on their work.

This is the problem with everyone and their mom being allowed to vote, is now no ones vote matters. So the politicians just do what ever they want. This is why the founders made land owning a pre-requisite, that way you had some skin in the game. OR whoever pays the most taxes, etc.

 

[pittsflyer]

Even a 1/3 showing up your vote is still statisticly insignificant. If the barriers to entry to gain voting rights were high and few could do it then it would mean something.

Seems a rather petty and unnecessary reason to go to prison (the penalty here is actually a fairly moderate fine). And there is no compulsion to 'participate' in the election. You can hand in a blank ballot form if you wish. The only compulsion is that you attend.

And to be blunt, I don't think a citizen of a country in which barely a third of its members bothered to turn up to their last election should have too much to say about the appropriateness of the electoral process.

I think it is the height of cynicism when I read that significant sections of your political leadership relish the prospect of lower voter participation, in the expectation that they would enjoy greater electoral success.

I think some people get a little overworked and confused about the relativities of 'rights' versus 'responsibilities'.

 

[Inkfingers]

I have no wish to see compulsory voting; a sensible vote has to be well informed, but making it compulsory is going to end up with a bucket full of ignorant and lazy votes who normally would not bother.

 

[JackofSpades]

If voting was compulsory here, I would do my best to cause difficulties and extra expenses for the system, like everytime putting something very tacky in my ticket.

That's the least I could do to protest the system, because I would find it offensive. Not voting in elections is important part of my belief system. I did my study of political system as younger and I ended up in conclusion that voting is not worth the effort, because even in the event that you would manage to make difference (which is extremely unlikely) it carries very high risk of not getting what you opted for because of lying politicans who are not held responsible for lying to voters. For me, being passive in elections is not laziness, it's my political view.

 

[Eudaimonist]

Free stuff for everybody, ex nihilo! Woo hoo!

That what most of them sound like. "Liberal" Democrats in the US must be wetting their pants.

A few of the suggestions are good ideas (e.g., the speeding ticket lottery). However, compulsory voting is downright evil. No one should be compelled to express an opinion about who to support for public office when their opinion is that there is no one worth voting for or that they disapprove of voting altogether. I'm not talking about the results of the elections, but about the integrity of voters. And, no, write-in votes don't really solve the problem.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[SteveB28]

Things are going to turn out the way that the powerful want them to.

I am not going to participate in an election under the illusion that anybody's vote influences outcomes.

My participation in elections is symbolic.

Coercing me into participating in an election is making me a pawn under the control of the powerful. Going to jail would be my way of voting--a way to not have my relatively little power taken away.

You do realise that none of that makes sense, don't you?

If you get sent to jail, your power has most certainly been taken away from you!

 

[SteveB28]

Compulsory voting sounds aweful, what about people that live in semi remote areas and dont have the means to get to a poling place for something that is statisticly insignificant. What about people that are busy doing important things and know that the odds of their vote mattering is so vanishingly small as to not matter but if they spend an hour engaged in what is equivalent to the power ball they will get behind on their work.

This is the problem with everyone and their mom being allowed to vote, is now no ones vote matters. So the politicians just do what ever they want. This is why the founders made land owning a pre-requisite, that way you had some skin in the game. OR whoever pays the most taxes, etc.

We have people living in some of the most remote places on earth. Yet they still vote with little fuss. We have this quaint little mechanism called a mail system!

And, as far as "being busy" is concerned, we hold our elections on weekends when most people have free time. For those that work, again there is the postal voting option.

And we have found that demanding that "everyone and their mom" should vote means that politicians have to devise policies that are going to convince a majority of the population, rather than a vocal minority.

I note that a number of people here have adopted a 'why bother?' attitude. Have you ever stopped to consider that such an attitude has developed because most of your people don't involve themselves in the electoral process?

 

[SteveB28]

Sorry, I repeated my message unintentionally

 

[SteveB28]

Free stuff for everybody, ex nihilo! Woo hoo!

That what most of them sound like. "Liberal" Democrats in the US must be wetting their pants.

A few of the suggestions are good ideas (e.g., the speeding ticket lottery). However, compulsory voting is downright evil. No one should be compelled to express an opinion about who to support for public office when their opinion is that there is no one worth voting for or that they disapprove of voting altogether. I'm not talking about the results of the elections, but about the integrity of voters. And, no, write-in votes don't really solve the problem.


eudaimonia,

Mark

No one compels me to vote. Only that I attend and pick up a ballot paper. What I write on that paper, if anything, is entirely up to me. If I feel that there is "no one worth voting for", then I can elect to put nothing on my ballot paper.

Few people do though. For some unfathomable reason, most of my fellow citizens seem to take their responsibilities seriously.

 

[Eudaimonist]

I note that a number of people here have adopted a 'why bother?' attitude. Have you ever stopped to consider that such an attitude has developed because most of your people don't involve themselves in the electoral process?

That's almost certainly not the reason. The low turnout in America is almost certainly a product of the plurality voting system, because it tends to squelch other viewpoints than those of the Establishment. That's why America has a so-called two party system and why third parties and independent candidates are squashed into irrelevancy (unless they are super-duper-rich like Ross Perot.)

Other systems, such as party-list proportional voting, tend to improve voter turnout because more viewpoints are represented in the results.

Even the use of range/approval voting would be better, because even viewpoints that are unpopular will at least have a favorable election result, and there can be an "incubator effect" for new political parties.


eudaimonia,

Mark

 

[Eudaimonist]

No one compels me to vote. Only that I attend and pick up a ballot paper. What I write on that paper, if anything, is entirely up to me. If I feel that there is "no one worth voting for", then I can elect to put nothing on my ballot paper.

Okay, but that is still coercive.

For some unfathomable reason, most of my fellow citizens seem to take their responsibilities seriously.

You "take your responsibilities seriously"... when compelled to do so. How deep is that sense of responsibility when it doesn't happen when people are free to vote or not?


eudaimonia,

Mark