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> Setting the barrier to democratic participation at "learn to code..." means that that isn't really a democratic system at all. As opposed to paying for 8 ye

by staunch 12y ago

> Setting the barrier to democratic participation at "learn to code..." means that that isn't really a democratic system at all. As opposed to paying for 8 years of law school and getting elected using the money of special interests? Setting the bar at knowledge freely available to anyone is about as good as you can do. In practice, it only takes a handful of programmers to provide value for billions and stave off corruption. See: Linux

Frondo 12y ago
In which municipality do you need to attend 8 years of law school to vote? Where I live (Oregon, USA), they mail us ballots every year or two, and we vote on things. You don't need to own property or have a car, you still get to vote on stuff. For example, last year we decided to legalize cannabis in our state. I'm quite sure the millions of people who voted for that didn't spend 8 years in law school.
- jMyles 12y ago
  The case to be made isn't that the barrier to voting is sufficiently low, but that voting substantially matters at all. There are plenty of political scientists who think that, as a mechanism for changing power structures, voting is ineffective and poorly conceived.
  - Frondo 12y ago
    I have friends who are involved in Washington State's exploding cannabis industry. There is a lot of money flowing now, a lot of new jobs being created, an absolutely breathtaking number of new businesses forming and doing trade. Whole new organizations and power structures are forming, because people voted to make this OK. The same thing's going to happen in Oregon, when our legalization starts rolling along. Watching an industry move from mostly-black-market (excepting the medical marijuana scene) to exploding with life and all on the level--as one example--it makes it tough for me to accept that voting does not substantially matter. (The other example I bring up is the Affordable Care Act. I can now buy insurance out of pocket that caps my annual expenses at around $6000. Huge improvement over the old status quo for me and other independent professionals. I'm pretty sure that, had McCain won in 2008, that we wouldn't have anything like McCainCare. Another place where voting has lead to policy that has improved structures of power and trade.)
sanswork 12y ago
Linux is far from the product of a handful of programmers.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
bdcravens 12y ago
> In practice, it only takes a handful of programmers to provide value for billions and stave off corruption. See: Linux I get the point, but Linux's success isn't purely the result of a few programmers banging their fingers against a keyboard. There has been billions of dollars poured into its development over the years by corporate interests in the form of pure money and developers being paid to work on it.
ende 12y ago
As a complete tangent, what a great way to incentivize more people to learn how to code!

by staunch 12y ago

Frondo 12y ago

In which municipality do you need to attend 8 years of law school to vote? Where I live (Oregon, USA), they mail us ballots every year or two, and we vote on things. You don't need to own property or have a car, you still get to vote on stuff. For example, last year we decided to legalize cannabis in our state. I'm quite sure the millions of people who voted for that didn't spend 8 years in law school.

jMyles 12y ago
The case to be made isn't that the barrier to voting is sufficiently low, but that voting substantially matters at all. There are plenty of political scientists who think that, as a mechanism for changing power structures, voting is ineffective and poorly conceived.
- Frondo 12y ago
  I have friends who are involved in Washington State's exploding cannabis industry. There is a lot of money flowing now, a lot of new jobs being created, an absolutely breathtaking number of new businesses forming and doing trade. Whole new organizations and power structures are forming, because people voted to make this OK. The same thing's going to happen in Oregon, when our legalization starts rolling along. Watching an industry move from mostly-black-market (excepting the medical marijuana scene) to exploding with life and all on the level--as one example--it makes it tough for me to accept that voting does not substantially matter. (The other example I bring up is the Affordable Care Act. I can now buy insurance out of pocket that caps my annual expenses at around $6000. Huge improvement over the old status quo for me and other independent professionals. I'm pretty sure that, had McCain won in 2008, that we wouldn't have anything like McCainCare. Another place where voting has lead to policy that has improved structures of power and trade.)

sanswork 12y ago

Linux is far from the product of a handful of programmers.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]

bdcravens 12y ago

> In practice, it only takes a handful of programmers to provide value for billions and stave off corruption. See: Linux I get the point, but Linux's success isn't purely the result of a few programmers banging their fingers against a keyboard. There has been billions of dollars poured into its development over the years by corporate interests in the form of pure money and developers being paid to work on it.

ende 12y ago

As a complete tangent, what a great way to incentivize more people to learn how to code!