UPDATE - I removed the Thomas Jefferson quote as it's evidently a fake: http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/democracy-will-cease-to-exist-quotation http:/

UPDATE - I removed the Thomas Jefferson quote as it's evidently a fake: http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/democracy-will-cease-to-exist-quotation http://www.monticello.org/site/jefferson/democracy-will-ceas... I’m also a big fan of Occam's razor when it comes to politics because people tell themselves all kinds of imaginative things to justify their beliefs while a five year old child would see right through them. The simplest answer may be unpopular even if it’s the right one, and I think that’s why people so often ignore it. The truth is that US taxes are about as low as they have ever been for any developed country, there are more loopholes than ever before, and money has corrupted politics to the point where the wealthy determine elections now instead of the voting populace. The reason this matters is that the poor don’t have capital. They don’t even have good credit. How can they be expected to pick themselves up by their bootstraps and get an education when people even on this site (one of the densest concentrations of intelligence in the world) constantly demand privatization? Take away the entirety of a people’s wealth and what do they have left? Their inalienable rights, their community, their heritage, in essence their government. I think any attack on what we’ve traditionally thought of as government services (like public education) is only going to lead us faster to aristocracy. I have an inkling of what could be done to reduce wealth inequality but the pragmatic view of these things has become unpopular. I just ask that anyone who is passionate about something like school vouchers or inheritance taxes take a step back and look at the big picture. Instant runoff voting, publicly funded elections, and treating all net income equally under a progressive tax system are just a handful of newish ideas that would do wonders for leveling the playing field. My feeling is that people don’t want it leveled, so the disparity between rich and poor today basically comes down to prejudice.