How important IS todays democracy anyhow?
By Lord_Xtheth
@Lord_Xtheth (52)
Canada
April 13, 2007 9:07pm CST
It has come to my attention that the democracy of todays world is a failing system. Politicians rarely ask the people what they want anymore, and if they did, would people realy know what they wanted?
The biggest problem is that there is so many people out there with so many differing ideas about any political matter than any kind of question or change in the system would be viewed by the general public through semi-shaded eyes.
Most suggestions or changes the government wants to make are worded so that either side of a view could be correct.
Take for example Housing taxes. In Calgary Canada Housing taxes have gone up because "The city is growing" On one hand I can see that the city itself needs the excess money to buy the land and build the housing required for new members of the growing community, but on the other hand if there are more people moving here, that means that there automatically will be a greater tax income for the government system just by numbers alone.
Another good example is The G.S.T. Idea. When G.S.T. was instituted, it was meant as a short term "safety net" in the occurance of emergency. The time proposed for the term of G.S.T. has resently expired, and yet I'm still paying tax on things. Granted it's moved from the orriginal 7% down to 6% and eventually will go down further. However this tax is supposed to be GONE. The advantage of having said tax is that the government will constantly have an income outside of special interest investments. The downside is that We the people have to pay for this privilage.
In both my examples there is a positive and negitive no matter how you look at it. Now take it further by making it a vote. Would the average person realy know which way is the better way to vote? I doubt it. I'm not trying to put the inteligence of people at question here, its just a fact that no matter how you look at things there is always a good and bad way to see it.
Democracy is the people chosing what they want, but what we want is already in place and generaly held by the people no matter what the government chooses. A prime example of this is the $2 coin. When it was first introduced a vote was made on what to name the coin. Any name could have been chosen and aparently the majority of the people chose to call the coin the "doubloon" as in double loonie. I for one have never, beyond the announcement, heard a single person call it a doubloon. Everyone calls it a "Toonie, or Twonie".
Does this mean the democratic system failed? No, it means that the desision wasn't thought entirely through and a name was chosen baced on what would look better on paper, not what it would actually be called.
Ultimately my point is, regardless of the choises we make on a government scale, we as the people still deside what is and isn't. Democracy as a practice, I believe, is a failure.
What are your thoughts?
No responses