New Zealand, like many countries, has been living beyond its means in recent years. Our government is borrowing $300m per week to make ends meet and we are headed for an economic oblivion similar to that currently being experienced by the "PIGS" countries - Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain (a very appropriate acronym).
The problem is our form of democracy and in particular our Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) electoral system that gives every minor political grievance party an inordinate influence in our House of Representatives.
Benjamin Franklin said democracy was "two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch" and this is perhaps truer of 21st Century Western democracy than it was of 18th Century America. In our democracy a diminishing minority of the populace are held to ransom through the tax system by an increasing, unproductive majority.
We need to introduce fiscal responsibility to our system of government and I believe the only way to do this is to give greater political power to those who pay the bills.
I would like to see a revision to our electoral system, call it a new form of proportional representation if you like, where you get to vote in proportion to the taxes you pay. Under this system, taxation could become voluntary but if you wanted to influence the political system you would have to pay taxes to, in effect, buy votes. Each $1000 you paid in taxes would buy you one electoral vote. The average of your tax contribution over the three years prior to the election would be taken to avoid stacking the votes in the last year of an electoral cycle. If you paid no taxes, you would get no votes. I see no reason why corporations shouldn't be given votes in proportion to the taxes they pay as well.
This system would solve our nation's fiscal problems in short order and would ensure policies that promoted the economic well-being of the country.
5 comments:
Agreed!
I would like to make one slight ammendment:
Votes are given in proportion to the Nett Contribution to the public purse. Thus, if you pull a salary from the government, your taxes do not grant you votes.
It puts the "servant" next to "civil" again.
Good idea, I'll add that to the manifesto!
'I would like to see a revision to our electoral system, call it a new form of proportional representation if you like, where you get to vote in proportion to the taxes you pay.'
I'm disabled and can't work...or pay taxes. Does that mean that I don't have a vote? If I don't have a vote, do I therefore not have to abide by the laws of the land?
A Lee Firth, clearly you do not have a disabled brain and you can operate a computer, so I can see no reason why you couldn't work, if suitable work was available. If you choose not to work (or even you genuinely can't work), why should you have the right to vote in a government that extorts money from me to give to you?
To Kiwiwit: I've got Asperger's syndrome - try investigating online the levels of discrimination, hatred and ignorance we face...oh, and by the way we have an unemployment rate of 95%.
Personally there is nothing more I would like to do than work, yes even be FORCED to work by the government. I pretty much suggest this every time I sign on at the jobcentre...but nothing ever happens.
Oh, and just in case you're interested I did full-time voluntary work for twelve years and two periods of six months of workfare. Maybe you shouldn't be entitled to vote until you've done the same.
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