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

[Strathos]

TIL Australia is a fascist dictatorship

 

[Booko]

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

You could always do what the article mentioned and do some um creative art on the ballot to void it.

 

[Booko]

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.

These are the real concerns here. When it can take people as much as 90 minutes to get to the polling place, that's a problem.

There are no days that all workers have off, so they are not travelling to the precinct close to their home.

Voting by mail might work, oh except for those who are more transient.

I'm not sure how Australia keeps track of voters being registered, but here in the U.S. our system is antiquated, even if our machinery is not. If I have to register to vote 30 days prior to an election and I just moved, I can probably look forward to paying that fine.

We have a lot of work to do, and there is not will to spend money or make changes, beyond what we see in terms of making it even more difficult for some people to vote than it already is.

I'm a poll manager in Georgia. You got questions, ask away.

 

[Booko]

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.

lol we are not allowed to discuss politics in the precinct, and neither are voters, but if you think most of the people who show up are well informed, please sign up to work in your precinct asap, as you may find it very educational indeed.

I'm still there to ensure every voter gets to exercise their right to do so, and I am very serious about that no matter what I may think of the level of seriousness of people who show up. At least they showed up, you know? And that means they're trying, which counts for something.

We do get some blank votes on the machines, and they are not accidents. So at least some people show up just to vote for None of the Above.

Now there's a voting reform that would be quite interesting. Require None of the Above to be a choice for every race, and if a candidate can't win against None of the Above, too bad keep trying till someone shows up and gets more votes.

 

[Booko]

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.

People already do that.

Mickey Mouse is quite a favorite with the electorate as a write in candidate.

Reading the write ins is the best part of the closing out procedure. lol

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.

My view is that local elections matter the most, and there voters can make a real difference. The higher up the office is, the more bought out the candidates are, and the less interested I am in voting for any of them.

But often winning local elections is a gateway to higher office, so I appreciate the oppotunity to stop the real dunderheads at that level, where my vote actually matters a great deal.

Pretty much all my voting life I've written in a candidate for President. Pat Paulsen is my perennial favorite. I guess that kind of ages me, eh?

 

[SteveB28]

These are the real concerns here. When it can take people as much as 90 minutes to get to the polling place, that's a problem.

There are no days that all workers have off, so they are not travelling to the precinct close to their home.

Voting by mail might work, oh except for those who are more transient.

I'm not sure how Australia keeps track of voters being registered, but here in the U.S. our system is antiquated, even if our machinery is not. If I have to register to vote 30 days prior to an election and I just moved, I can probably look forward to paying that fine.

We have a lot of work to do, and there is not will to spend money or make changes, beyond what we see in terms of making it even more difficult for some people to vote than it already is.

I'm a poll manager in Georgia. You got questions, ask away.

Voter registration here is through the Australian Electoral Commission, a federal body. If one changes address that places one outside of their current electorate ('district' in your country?), or if one reaches the legal voting age of 18, then it is necessary to notify the AEC. This is usually done by filling in a form at the local post office. Easy. All elections are conducted by the AEC, so we avoid the remarkable variation in process from state to state that I understand characterises the US system.

If a person changes address and has insufficient time to notify the AEC before an upcoming election, they are simply permitted to vote in their old electorate.

 

[Chesterton]

You could always do what the article mentioned and do some um creative art on the ballot to void it.

I had a friend who didn't believe in voting but he would always go vote whenever he could write-in a candidate. He'd use the more creative names of local punk bands, so for Governor he'd vote for Nine Foot Worm Makes Own Food, for Senator he might vote for The Vodka Family Winstons. Since write-in's are allowed it didn't actually void the ballot, I guess? I assume those bands got at least one vote each.

 

[Booko]

I'm a little surprised that the concept of a universal health insurance scheme didn't make the list. From what I see of a) the debate within the USA and b) the comparisons made with countries such as my own, I would have thought this to be one of the 20 more popular initiatives that Americans might like to 'steal'?

Americans would first have to understand what they have, and they decidedly do not.

Then they would have to look at options in other countries to see what might work better here, but *American exceptionalism*.

Good luck with that. We can't even have a rational conversation about what Canada does, and they're a neighbor.

 

[Booko]

I don't know what my potential candidate has voted for. I vote for the party, not the individual.

If I were compelled to vote and my only choice was voting for party, then it would be against my religion to vote.

So I guess I pay the $50.

Well, I suppose the blank ballot is an option.

 

[Booko]

A common theme that I see in many of these is that it is something that is given to everyone for free. But there is no free lunch. All of these things need to be paid for or produced by someone. For those who say wouldn't it be wonderful if everyone got this thing or that thing for free, I ask, at who's expense?

In the case of Finland, where parents get this new baby package, I'd read they found out it actually saves money overall, as babies are generally healthier and so the health system isn't paying for unnecessary things.

So getting stuff "free" can actually save money sometimes.

Sort of like the argument for dropping capital punishment here in the U.S. as it's actually cheaper to pay for life imprisonment.

 

[Booko]

Voter registration here is through the Australian Electoral Commission, a federal body. If one changes address that places one outside of their current electorate ('district' in your country?), or if one reaches the legal voting age of 18, then it is necessary to notify the AEC. This is usually done by filling in a form at the local post office. Easy. All elections are conducted by the AEC, so we avoid the remarkable variation in process from state to state that I understand characterises the US system.

If a person changes address and has insufficient time to notify the AEC before an upcoming election, they are simply permitted to vote in their old electorate.

Oh all voter registration rules here are mandated by the states, not the Feds, so yes, it's mayhem.

I wouldn't hold my breath waiting for our election registration process to be regularized across states. The fiefdom mentality is very big in many places.

 

[Booko]

I had a friend who didn't believe in voting but he would always go vote whenever he could write-in a candidate. He'd use the more creative names of local punk bands, so for Governor he'd vote for Nine Foot Worm Makes Own Food, for Senator he might vote for The Vodka Family Winstons. Since write-in's are allowed it didn't actually void the ballot, I guess? I assume those bands got at least one vote each.

It depends on the state's laws.

Here in Georgia some years back, the two parties didn't like the idea that anyone else could horn in by way of write-ins, so they locked it down so now unless a write in candidate "registers" as a write in, that vote may be listed on the results, but it doesn't count for anything.

The process for getting registered as a write-in candidate is, of course, ridiculous.

As far as I'm concerned parties should be banned. They are not in our Constitution and only exist because of some silly thing the English aristocracy started doing. Call me underwhelmed.

I know from the way my own religion works that democracy does not require political parties. In fact, I see democracy works better without them.

 

[SteveB28]

Americans would first have to understand what they have, and they decidedly do not.

Then they would have to look at options in other countries to see what might work better here, but *American exceptionalism*.

Good luck with that. We can't even have a rational conversation about what Canada does, and they're a neighbor.

Yes, I understand. Mind you, from my humble vantage point, the genesis of your great republic was, in no small part, due to your willingness to absorb the best "options in other countries" into your own, no?

 

[RDKirk]

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.

No, the Founders did not make owning land a prerequisite. Most states and localities did, but that was not a Federal requirement. The Constitution relied on the states to determine their own voting laws. New Hampshire, for instance, did not have a landowning requirement by the time the Constitution was ratified.

 

[Booko]

Yes, I understand. Mind you, from my humble vantage point, the genesis of your great republic was, in no small part, due to your willingness to absorb the best "options in other countries" into your own, no?

Yes, I would say so. And we still do that, especially on local and regional levels where there is a fresh infusion from the world.

We still do seem to be able to assimilate people from pretty much anywhere. Yes there are xenophobes. It's been a lot worse in the past than it is now. Getting used to new folk just takes a while.

What we seem to do poorly is look at public policy in other countries and see if there's anything that would apply here.

Cultural appropriation -- in that we're expert lol

 

[RDKirk]

For curious detail, I noticed that majority of things on that list come from northern parts of Europe, and that is also the region with highest taxes in the world.

Not saying it's a bad thing tho, I generally like the region I'm living in but technically it's true. Those countries that have high standard social security, have to tax more to keep it up.

Paying high taxes appears not to decrease the standard of living. I'm still waiting to see what really awful things it actually does. It doesn't appear to cause all manufacturing to go to China (and letting corporations have tax loopholes doesn't seem to encourage them not to send all manufacturing to China).

 

[RDKirk]

In the case of Finland, where parents get this new baby package, I'd read they found out it actually saves money overall, as babies are generally healthier and so the health system isn't paying for unnecessary things.

So getting stuff "free" can actually save money sometimes.

Sort of like the argument for dropping capital punishment here in the U.S. as it's actually cheaper to pay for life imprisonment.

I just saw a statito (a little statistic) that the total spent annually for tuition in public colleges and universities in the US is $62 billion. However, the Federal grants,tax breaks, and work-study money comes to $69 billion (whether that includes the cost of administration, I don't know). In other words, the federal government would save money if it just paid tuition directly.