I have often have ideas about things the government could do to help people, and ways people could have more control over the way their government treats them. And it isn't so much to do with better treatment or worse treatment, but with individual preferences. A lot of stuff isn't done because of the logistical problems with founding out if people actually want it to be done. For instance, a lot of fairly low-income workers might prefer not to have mandatory superannuation and at the moment are forced to have it. At the same time a lot of extremely low-income works might like to have superannuation, but don't because the government has decided they are too poor to save for retirement. It would be better if preferences like this could be recorded by the government and remembered, whilst still allowing people to change their minds. You could even record the preference for superannuation levels so works could choose a 15% contribution rate instead of 9%.
It's related to the silliness of representative democracy. We have a very low level of participation in our own governments purely for logistical reasons. I reckon that excuse is getting worse and worse as time goes by.
It’s interesting. Australia at least is a little more representative than Britain, with the first past the post voting system & unelected upper house over here. Tony blair was voted in by about 20% of the voting population but claims that he has a mandate to do this and that.
The scary thing about Australia’s voting system being better is that there is less excuse for Australians to have about John Howard’s ever increasing majority…
James Clarke / 12:00am / 18 October 2006
Yeah. People complain about the political process here. But I’m far more disillusioned with the Australian people than I am with our politicians.
Ryan / 8:52am / 18 October 2006