About Me
Tuesday, May 02, 2006
Who's the smartest man around?
Why it's Dilbert of course! Well, technically it's Scott Adams who has a funny post up on his blog today about the Income Gap.
I keep hearing pundits whining about the growing gap between the rich and the poor. I have difficulty empathizing with that viewpoint for two reasons:
1. Poor people can vote.
2. There are more poor people than
rich people.
In theory, those unhappy poor people could vote to tax the living piss out of the super rich. Why don’t they do it?
I know you’ll say the system is rigged in favor of big money, and the voters are manipulated into voting against their own self interests. That’s all true of course. Still, if you’re looking to place blame, it has to be on the low income people who
don’t vote. If ever there was an appropriate time for the phrase “It’s your own
damned fault,” it’s now.
8 Comments:
GA,
I might point out that we live in a representative democracy, which means that individuals do not (most of the time) vote on actual legislation. That task is left to representatives (senators, congressmen, you took Civics, right?), meaning that on issues that directly impact the wealthy, they do have a disproportionate say in legislation, as they are the ones who do the lion's share of campaign financing.
This is exactly what just happened (in the most egregious instance) with Jack Abramoff. He literally bought legislation for wealthy clients. To say that the poor have as much say in tax law as the wealthy do is to deliberately ignore the truth of the situation.
Well, no, since I'm Canadian, I didn't take Civics. I took a poormans version of Canadian Politics merged with English called "Humanities" of all things...
However, since this is actually referring to the US system, your point is well made.
The fact is that poor people have a horrible voter turn out rate. And you can't bitch about any legislation (tax laws included) unless you take the time to vote.
In fact, you can, when your vote is as far abstracted from the actual legislation as it is, and when incumbency has a 98% election rate.
No Senator ever ran on the "Pork Barrel spending and shady insider deals" platform.
I was unable to read the article you linked to, I believe their server is down, so I have no idea what the point of the article was.
I don't feel its as black and white as you make it seem. Like any other income bracket, everyone has their own reasons for voting or not voting. As for the poor, many are uneducating, may not be 'up' on the candidates or our election process. They may even lack the confidence in our politicians and feel their issues aren't cared about. There may be those that have voted in the past and have found that it didn't do a thing to change what they wanted to see change and have lost hope. Demographics can play a part I'm sure. Even if all poor people in my riding voted, it wouldn't make a difference; they are a minority.
It would be great if all poor people voted, it would be great if all young people voted, it would even be great if all middle class and rich people voted but sadly it just doesn't happen. The bitching will never go away, rich or poor. LOL
Hmmm... I cliked on it and it opened fine for me...
The point of the article was basically: if you didn't vote, don't bitch about it.
I think it's black and white. I've been low income, I grew up low income. So the 'poor' were not the minority where I lived. I have voted in every possible election in my area. People died for my right to vote and I don't intend to spit in their faces by being 'too busy' to vote.
If someone is uneducated, they can educate themselves, they can ask questions... when local politicians go door knocking they can corner them and pick their addled little brains.
Not having confidence in a system isn't a good enough excuse. There are so many ways to become educated, you just have to put in the effort.
But I agree with you... the issue of "you can't bitch if you don't vote" is not restricted by economic boundaries.
And yes... I chided someone else today about things not being black and white, I should take my own medicine.
Damn! You get politicians knocking at your door? I thought that practice ended years ago LOL
GA,
"people died for my right to vote.."
Are polar bear maulings that common at Canadian polls?
I kid, I kid.
nom_de:
LOL... I have thick skin. I'm married to the "Most American American" you can imagine... I've heard every Canadian joke you can come up with.
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