OT 2 party political system

[narf poit chez BOOM]

cheers. browsing webcomics, looking here on the side.

[Suicide Junkie]

I think you guys got PvK all wrong:

Here's how I think what he said is supposed to work:
1) When you vote, you can choose as many of the candidates as you like. Zero and All are both acceptable votes.
2) Any candidates with less than 50% (or number of your choice) of the votes are eliminated from any future calculations.
3) If one or more candidates remain after step 2, the one with the most votes wins.

So, For example:
4 candidates: Zack, Yolonda, Xavier, and Wanda.
8 voters: Alice, Bob, Cindy, David, Elaine, Fred, Gerald, and Helen.

Alice votes for Zack.
Bob votes for Zack and Xavier
C votes for Y,X,W
D votes for X,W
E votes for Z,Y,W
F votes for Z
G votes for Z,W
H votes for Z,W

Totals:
Zack - 6/8 = 75% approval
Yolonda - 2/8 = 25%
Xavier - 3/8 = 37.5%
Wanda - 5/8 = 62.5%

Thus, Yolonda and Xavier are kicked out of politics, and Zack gets the job.

[Erax]

Having two-round elections takes care of the 'candidates A, B and C' situation. In the first round, everyone votes for the candidate they like best. The two most-voted candidates go on to the second round, then everyone votes again. Unless someone changed their mind between rounds, A gets all the votes he had before, plus some of C's votes. Same for B. Those who voted for C in the first round didn't throw away their votes, they are still getting to decide who gets elected. Candidate C's situation is not too bad either, as he can gain political capital by supporting A or B or neither in the second round.

[Narrew]

One thing that bothers me is the career politician. I had always felt that serving the public should be a sacrifice not a full time job. At one time I thought term limits would be great, but I know there are good politicians on both sides of the isle, that they want to work for the public, but I don't want to throw the baby out with the bath water.

I admit I am biased and when I hear politicians like Daschel and Kennedy spew excrement, I tend to waffle on the term limit idea.

I do think that we need to repeal their perks when they leave office (yearly wage and medical) make them live off of Social Security and Medicare, if they did that, then perhaps politicians on both sides of isle will decide to do the right thing. If it is good enough for me then it should be good enough for them.

Since we don't have term limits we have to hope the voting public will change their view on career Politicians.

[Loser]

The problem with cutting the pay of a politician is that s/he is still a politician. These are powerful people. If they are not secure, financially and in their future, they may use their power for the benefit of specific Groups who will then give them that security.

Of course, it's also possible that they are doing that already....

Wha'ch gonna do?

[Narrew]

Thats true Loser, but if they knew they were not going to get a free ride after being elected, perhaps they will do their thing then get back to the private sector *shrug*

[Suicide Junkie]

As for pay, what if every person were given something like $5 to divide up amongst the politicians in office?

Disallow any other payments to them.

With hundreds of millions of people, that should give them all a reasonable amount of pay, and keep them focussed on serving the people.