Andrei.Hicks wrote on Sep 9
th, 2010 at 3:48pm:
I am talking here about the social underclass that exist in today's society. The uneducated, illiterate, waste of a class of people who are just pointless. They are found on the council estates up and down the country with their teenage mothers etc.
These people are not people we want engaging in voting - because they don't care and we should be giving them the chance to vote but allowing them not to, because if we're honest we're better off with them not voting.
Are you not aware of the concept of a donkey vote? You don't have to vote for anyone. Your vote is private. You just have to turn up at the polling booths, get your name ticked off and put your ballot paper in the ballot box. It is actually your participation that is compulsory.
I don't agree with you making it a class issue. What about members of the so-called "underclass" who do want to vote? I think it would be wrong to say that these people don't care. I think they would want the government to help them out of their wretched state. What about members of the middle class, the upper class or your class (whichever that might be) that don't care? You're singling out a particular class as people who couldn't care less.
I disagree also with your argument that only educated people care, or that educated people wouldn't become disillusioned with politics. If we have a bunch of politicians who just want our vote and don't really have any meaningful policies to put out there, I think that would put plenty of educated people in a state of disillusionment. They have the knowledge to decide what is good for the country, but they aren't interested in working in the government. They leave the nation building and policy-making to the politicians.
If our politicians propose crap policies what are we to do?
It would be nice if there was a web site that provided resources and information that would allow us to put the government under closer scrutiny, instead of having to watch press conferences and debates on TV. Why don't they make the Federal Budget public on a web site? Why don't they post the bills that pass through Parliament on a web site? How do they make their decisions in Parliament? I wish they would make all the documentation public and put it on a web site.
It's just so hard to make a rational decision when we don't even have access to all the relevant information. Some people just give up and become disillusioned with the process.
I hear them quoting and mentioning numbers and figures but I don't know where it originates and therefore can't access the documentation I need to compare these numbers and figures with others that would help me decide if a government wasted money or if it had used it appropriately.
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