Quote:
Originally Posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Well, I guess I have to say it, so I will. We can't really have true democracy because, as de Tocqueville said, the common person will vote himself the riches of the treasury until it is bankrupt.
|
What about the electoral college inherently prevents that? Not something about your current understanding of the politics of sparsely-populated states, but something that comes directly from giving extra weight to the votes of people in those states? There's nothing. Because de Tocqueville was full of shit on this.
Quote:
|
Putting aside MMT, which one should as it is a scary concept
|
One should put aside MMT, aside from the obvious observation that deficits and government debt to not matter in very low interest rate environments with no crowding out of private investment and no upward pressure on rates. There is a world where "we can't afford it" is a thing, but we haven't seen it since maybe the 1990s.
Quote:
|
Would they not merely lead us into a stagnant European welfare state?
|
You mean happier, healthier, better cared for, and housed? Yes, give us a European welfare state. Yeah, they've been marginally poorer than us overall. It's worth it. Especially when that margin goes literally to a tiny handful of people.
Quote:
|
I also have to believe that, having met the common folk on the right and left, as have you and everyone else here, you realize a lot of these people probably should not have the right to vote.
|
Nope. I'm an elitist prick, but I'm not that much of an elitist prick.
Quote:
|
The country works best when a good blend of elites (read, not the "elites" of media or academia who've never met a payroll or had any real metric applied to them and are therefore dangerous abstract thinkers), right and left, balanced, is the best way to run the country.
|
That shit had some credibility, maybe, before the Gingrich revolution, but there are no such people on the right anymore.
