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So get involved with the political process and work to make it better. It's so easy to get into local and state politics, and that's the stuff that has the big

by Frondo 11y ago

So get involved with the political process and work to make it better. It's so easy to get into local and state politics, and that's the stuff that has the biggest influence over your life. I don't get why more people don't do this!

JoshTriplett 11y ago
Getting involved with politics is a life-consuming activity, especially if you want to actually change anything. My state, unlike most in the US and unlike the US federal government, at least has a requirement that all tax issues must be voted on by the general public rather than just passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. The federal government, however, is the largest source of both taxes and onerous regulations, the most challenging and time-consuming to get involved with, and the most resistant to change. (This is, oddly, a larger-scale version of the same problem Wikipedia has or many other organizations have: whoever has the most time to waste can be the most successful creating and thriving in a bureaucracy, winning by sheer volume rather than by merit. Or, alternatively: anyone who would want the job shouldn't have it, and anyone who should have the job wouldn't want it.)
- Frondo 11y ago
  Yes, it is life-consuming. Anyone who wants to get into politics is getting into something that'll affect a lot of people's lives. It should take a lot of effort. If it were easy, our world (or the part of it that government touches, which is most of it) would be chaotic. As for "anyone who would want the job shouldn't have it," that's cute to some, but to me it's a tired thought-terminating cliche. It says "it's ok to be cynical, hur hur, and complain without doing anything about it," but does that get us any further?
  - JoshTriplett 11y ago
    I'm well aware that I'm complaining about something that I'm unwilling to take the time to fix. Given all the time in the world, it's one of the problems on the list; it's just not at the top. I don't, however, think it ought to take a life-consuming effort to make it stop affecting a lot of people's lives. But unfortunately, it probably will. Not least of which because there are a large number of people who feel entitled to make it affect a lot more of people's lives. In any case, though, I'm surprised that you say "I don't get why more people don't do this!"; I think it's fairly obvious why more people don't do this. If it were the kind of thing you could spend a few hours doing as a volunteer effort and have an impact, rather than the kind of thing you could spend your life on and possibly accomplish nothing, then more people might do it. On the other hand, if it were that way, then there wouldn't be as much of a problem to deal with in the first place.

by Frondo 11y ago

JoshTriplett 11y ago

Getting involved with politics is a life-consuming activity, especially if you want to actually change anything. My state, unlike most in the US and unlike the US federal government, at least has a requirement that all tax issues must be voted on by the general public rather than just passed by the legislature and signed by the governor. The federal government, however, is the largest source of both taxes and onerous regulations, the most challenging and time-consuming to get involved with, and the most resistant to change. (This is, oddly, a larger-scale version of the same problem Wikipedia has or many other organizations have: whoever has the most time to waste can be the most successful creating and thriving in a bureaucracy, winning by sheer volume rather than by merit. Or, alternatively: anyone who would want the job shouldn't have it, and anyone who should have the job wouldn't want it.)

Frondo 11y ago
Yes, it is life-consuming. Anyone who wants to get into politics is getting into something that'll affect a lot of people's lives. It should take a lot of effort. If it were easy, our world (or the part of it that government touches, which is most of it) would be chaotic. As for "anyone who would want the job shouldn't have it," that's cute to some, but to me it's a tired thought-terminating cliche. It says "it's ok to be cynical, hur hur, and complain without doing anything about it," but does that get us any further?
- JoshTriplett 11y ago
  I'm well aware that I'm complaining about something that I'm unwilling to take the time to fix. Given all the time in the world, it's one of the problems on the list; it's just not at the top. I don't, however, think it ought to take a life-consuming effort to make it stop affecting a lot of people's lives. But unfortunately, it probably will. Not least of which because there are a large number of people who feel entitled to make it affect a lot more of people's lives. In any case, though, I'm surprised that you say "I don't get why more people don't do this!"; I think it's fairly obvious why more people don't do this. If it were the kind of thing you could spend a few hours doing as a volunteer effort and have an impact, rather than the kind of thing you could spend your life on and possibly accomplish nothing, then more people might do it. On the other hand, if it were that way, then there wouldn't be as much of a problem to deal with in the first place.