I find Starship Troopers (ST) to still be thought provoking. The question of who should get "the vote" is quite interesting to continue thinking about.
Who should vote:
Felons after they are released having served their time?
Felons serving their time?
Felons on parole?
People committed to a mental institute?
Very low IQ people? Lower than 50? Lower than 75?
Very uneducated people? Unable to add, read or write?
What about brain-damaged? To what level?
Very old people who are losing their faculties?
What about special classes?
Everyone gets 1 vote.
People paying less than 20k in taxes (including sales, local, state, federal) get 2 votes.
People paying 20k-100k get 3 votes.
People paying more than 100k get 4 votes.
so yah, I use ST as a starting point to thinking about the consequences and unintended consequences of different voting schemes. The consequences of a tax paying weighted system can be interesting.
The group paying the most into the social tax fund would have the most impact on who gets elected.
The group paying the least would still get some say, but not enough to pull things to one extreme or another.
The group paying the most per person would get a bigger say, but they are such a small number of people that they would not be an issue.
The people avoiding paying taxes would have less say than if they had paid their fair share.
/as I said, thinking can be fun. yes I know all about the down sides, but the thinking alone can be useful.
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