I'm curious how you feel about the concept of taxation. It seems we can acknowledge as a given that any system of government will require funding to execute even the most minimal of functions, right? And what about mandatory voting? Wouldn't that help us to know better what people actually want their government to do?
It’s think it’s a necessary evil. I hate that the vast majority is misappropriated, stolen or wasted, but what can you do at this point. I don’t feel like it’s theft, as long as there is an agreement that it will be used to readily and verifiably better the community or country you live in, and can and will be audited to ensure it won’t end up misappropriated or missing, but we all know that thinking is naïveté.
Funny you should mention mandatory voting. I was adding a post about mandatory service after my last post, but became so frustrated with my iPad keypad I trashed the post. I wasn’t talking about voting, but it could be rolled into the compulsory service I was talking about. Call it Compulsory Service. I was thinking of political positions. Looking around at all current candidates leaves one with an hollow feeling. I would hazard a guess that either many of you here, or at the least, people many of you here know in your personal lives, are brighter than most all current political options and would do a better job running things than the current crop of candidates. So why don’t we have compulsory service. 1) Term limits to hedge against gaming the system and ensure new people of all stripes are injected into the political discourse and decision making positions. 2) (your suggestion) Make it compulsory to vote. I would say that the only way I’d support this option is requiring it alongside actual education. I hate to say this, I honestly do, but have you talked or worked with many people under 20 lately? I have been astounded at their lack of knowledge about seemingly rudimentary topics. I don’t want to sound like a boomer or the old man yelling at clouds, but hiring knowledgeable, smart people shortly out of high school has become altogether depressing. 3) Compulsory civil service. Make it like some other countries do their military. You don’t have to serve your whole life, just 4 years. It could be military, political, or basic civil service. Like the groups which already exist where you can go to other countries and fix infrastructure, dig wells for clean water, provide medical aid, or even education. Except instead of doing it abroad, it’s done in your home country. IDK if it would fix many of our political and social problems, but it would certainly help.
I’ll also say this, to be perfectly honest, there would have to be a myriad of options available to people before I’d ever vote in favor of a system like that. Why? Because as I’ve said, I’m against forcing anyone to do something against their will. I’d have to feel like we’re not backing folks into a corner, and I’m not sure that’s possible in any such system. It is interesting to talk about though, and I do feel that it has the possibility to fix much of what ails our country, but I’m not sure the juice is worth the squeeze.
Prob gonna bow out at this point, until I get my iPad keyboard fixed anyway. Typing that jumbled mess above was a pain on my phone.
