3 ms·

What I'm saying is, if the majority of people in a country that are willing to vote, want to vote in stupid legislation/policy that screws them over economicall

What I'm saying is, if the majority of people in a country that are willing to vote, want to vote in stupid legislation/policy that screws them over economically or whatever, they got what they (f'ing) deserved. Next time, they'll rethink their decisions and in theory, more people will turn out to prevent that from happening again.

giantg2 6y ago
Not necessarily. Some groups are simply outnumbered. Rural areas are outnumbered by urban areas. There are already a number of laws that rural people think are stupid. We see this especially in states like NY, CA, and OR. CA and OR have movements in rural areas to break away from the rest of the state. These are also states that often have referendums.
- jelliclesfarm 6y ago
  there is some truth to this and i have experienced this first hand. which makes me wonder: what is the ideal number for effective self goverance..as in representation by vote for taxation as well as governance. if i were to hazard a guess..it would be a range of 250 - 1 million.
  - giantg2 6y ago
    I'm not sure that it has a set number. The two ways that is see self governance succeeding is through a strong, homogeneous national (cultural) identity, or through philosophical enlightenment in the form of expansive tolerance of others and the suppression of natural tribalistic behavior. The national/cultural identity can be fragile due to the population changing and situations evolving. I do think population size plays a part in this, but I don't think there a hard number. The tolerance of others and avoiding tribalism is nearly impossible due to human nature. Just drawing the line on what is tolerable and what should be punished (law and crime) will at least divide the population into lawful citizens and criminals, if not political factions. Most people don't have the ability to self recognize confirmation bias (even very difficult for trained people to do).

giantg2 6y ago

Not necessarily. Some groups are simply outnumbered. Rural areas are outnumbered by urban areas. There are already a number of laws that rural people think are stupid. We see this especially in states like NY, CA, and OR. CA and OR have movements in rural areas to break away from the rest of the state. These are also states that often have referendums.

jelliclesfarm 6y ago
there is some truth to this and i have experienced this first hand. which makes me wonder: what is the ideal number for effective self goverance..as in representation by vote for taxation as well as governance. if i were to hazard a guess..it would be a range of 250 - 1 million.
- giantg2 6y ago
  I'm not sure that it has a set number. The two ways that is see self governance succeeding is through a strong, homogeneous national (cultural) identity, or through philosophical enlightenment in the form of expansive tolerance of others and the suppression of natural tribalistic behavior. The national/cultural identity can be fragile due to the population changing and situations evolving. I do think population size plays a part in this, but I don't think there a hard number. The tolerance of others and avoiding tribalism is nearly impossible due to human nature. Just drawing the line on what is tolerable and what should be punished (law and crime) will at least divide the population into lawful citizens and criminals, if not political factions. Most people don't have the ability to self recognize confirmation bias (even very difficult for trained people to do).