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Walter E. Williams has an interesting article out today.
There seems to be a lot of seen and unseen gerrymandering going on. In the first place, instead of logical voting districts, representatives are able to carve out for themselves “safe seats” that will always lean one way. This clearly benefits incumbents and doesn’t allow multiple different people access to our government– something that should be encouraged, right? I think someone should encourage a law to be passed that defined voting districts in straight grid like lines. Sure, natural topography would make some districts small, but that would allow some excitement! I don’t know– there has to be a better solution out there than the crazy districts that are the norm now.
The second has more to do with William’s article. In it he talks about how a majority of Americans pay no taxes, and these are the ones with equal votes to those that have a direct stake in how much money is taken out of their paychecks. This puts people who get money from the government directly opposed to people who lose money to the government– a guaranteed class warfare struggle. Again, I’m standing with the Fair Tax. I think that if that was implemented, we’d see some change in voting patterns too!
I’d have to weigh the multiple voting proposal Williams brought up. But I lean towards your idea of Fair Tax. I’m confident, you take out the rhetoric of taxes and we may focus our attention to better issues and getting more done.
I liked the phrase ‘the politics of envy’ in that article. It zeroes in on class warfare perfectly.
What do you think of the district gerrymandering– any ideas?
To be honest, like the multiple vote issue, I hadn’t fully considered it. But I tend to lean towards the idea that less influence and less manipulation is best. So I wouldn’t be opposed outright to what you’ve put forth. I simply would have to think it through more to get you a definitive on where I’d stand.
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I’ve heard this idea about multiple votes for the amount of tax paid before. There may be some merit to it, but I’m generally against the idea. The US is not a corporation. We are more than simply shareholders voting our financial interests. On the other hand, I’m very much in favor of a flat tax, and somewhat in favor of a national sales tax replacing the current system. My concern with the sales tax is that the rate would be so high that most of us in the middle class would end up paying a lot more, the lower income people would still pay nothing at all due to the rebates and may even get more of a distribution than from the current Earned Income Credit, and the wealthier would tend to avoid any consumption tax by making purchases overseas and not reporting them. It’s do-able but needs to be thought out carefully. One thing I hate is sales on clothes and food. I lived in Oregon for many years and got used to no sales tax at all. Then lived in WA and CA where they have high sales tax. Then in MN for 8 years where the sales tax is high, but there is no sales tax on clothes, food, services. Here is OK they tax everything. It’s quite annoying.