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The specific point about "imagine if they tied decision making power to how much you pay in taxes" was tried a while back: only tax-payers could vote. I'm all in favor of this, but I doubt many of my fellow citizens are.

(And to some extent we have this, through bribes and influence-buying. Campaign contributions, etc.)

Would anyone choose to pay more in taxes for an increased voting share? Hardly. Do the math on how influential any one vote is in an election. For specific cases, maybe. Again, that's how influence-peddling arises. Not a very healthy development, even for a cynic like me.

Heinlein suggested something similar (along with a few other "alternative" forms of government) in the afterword to "Who Are The Heirs of Patrick Henry" in _Expanded Universe_. Heinlein suggests: "A State where anyone can buy for cash (or lay-away installment plan) one or more franchises, and this is the government's sole source of income other than services sold competitively and non-monopolistically. This would produce a new type of government with several rabbits tucked away in the hat. Rich people would take over the government? Would the, now? Is a wealthy man going to impoverish himself for the privilege of casting a couple of hundred votes? Buying an election today, under the warm body (and tombstone) system is much cheaper than buying a controlling number of franchises would be. The arithmetic on this one becomes unsolvable...but I suspect that paying a stiff price (call it 20,000 swiss francs) for a franchise would be even less popular than serving for two years." Personally, I favor his government that requires an intelligence/knowledge test before a person can vote. I especially like his "Improving the Breed" variation on this one. :-) BTW, he also suggests the government in Twain's _The Curious Republic of Gondor_, but I've never read this book. Can anyone describe the goverment posited in this book? Ken ============================================================================= Ken Kirksey kkirksey@world.std.com Mac Guru & Developer - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- And the Clinton administration launched an attak on people in Texas because those people were religious nuts with guns. Hell, this country was FOUNDED by religious nuts with guns. - P.J. O'Rourke -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBLkD2AusZNYlu+zuBAQHsoQP9F/DcR8QUMpdCz7nfLlsUE1+kbJRDb6FC h3/613tR3IqRcKCj15nIg0QLYGH+OtcgPRskAJypPupZOS7+IZkeUk2bOPg57K0t H8UQbXY/xoc2WOUBKGsnXQnoBYQPvftU/M0V7t9ygVqGVFKIMapoVt+nXxYIsBLa EV54B/+2fsg= =KhXR -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----