[EM] New election system proposed - Larger votes for poorer people.

[matt at tidalwave.net]

On 21 Sep 2002 at 10:26, Steve Glickman wrote:

Since you inexplicably sent this as a response to my completely unrelated message 
maybe for some unexplained reason you are seeking my reaction?  Politicizing the 
design of the election process, no matter how good the intention, is a very bad idea.  
Your proposal, by selectively striving to give some people more voting power than 
others, politicizes the design of the election process.  Once the election design 
process is politicized it loses its integrity.

More proportional representation via multi-winner elections tallied using 
proportional representation methods gives more influence to constituencies that 
would otherwise be unable to use the election process to influence the candidates.  
Proportional representation increases representation generally without singling out 
any pre-identified group.  It gives minority groups a bigger voice in the election 
outcome regardless of whether the minorities are poor or rich or whatever and thus 
doesn't politicize the election process.

> Hey group,
> 
> My name is Steve Glickman. I'm the president and founder of a new movement
> called the Fair Choice Party. The FCP promotes the idea of curving the size
> of vote size so that poorer people get larger votes. The basic principle is
> to establish a system where each of us is permitted to choose fairly between
> how much participation (vote) and insulation (wealth) we want. It's a
> radical new step in the direction of social justice; brought into focus
> recently by our technology.
> 
> The website is http://FairChoice.org, and for those of you who want to skip
> right to the mathematics try
> http://fairchoice.org/text/VoteScalingTechniques.html.
> 
> I know that this idea is a little out of the ordinary; but I'm interested in
> hearing your thoughts on it. Please refrain from blaming poor people for
> their own problems; perhaps they are, perhaps they are not - but I think
> that it's become appear ant the it's not healthy to ignore their plight nor
> continue to look to the privileged to come up with solutions. What the Fair
> Choice proposes is a long-term system which is realistic, flexible, and yet
> maintains the aspect of both free trade and elected leaders.
> 
> 
> - Steve

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