A buddy and I were having a conversation about the sad state of our political system. During the discussion, I pointed to last falls Democratic primary as an example. When they were breaking down who voted for who, there was a trend. Most of the Clinton voters were lower to middle class and less educated. Most of the Obama voters were better educated and more affluent. When Bush was elected one of the reasons many people said they voted for him, was they could see themselves sitting down and having a beer with him over Gore.
Do we really want the less educated, poor assed, not as bright people actually making the decision as to who should be president? My opinion is of course not, we have 8 years of proof of what happens when you vote for the person you’d rather have a beer with.
My friend responded with that’s why we need a system based more on meritocracy. For those of you who don’t know, as per dictionary.com meritocracy is “an elite group of people whose progress is based on ability and talent rather than on class privilege or wealth.”
His idea is that the voters use this in adjusting how their vote counts. Currently, it’s one vote per person. Under a meritocracy style voting system you get points for achievements in your life. For Example: You get a point for military service, a half point for an Associates degree, and a full point for a bachelors. What you do for a living should also play into effect. The college professor should potentially get 2 points as compared to a corporate office monkey like myself, who only gets 1, to the Wal-Mart employee who gets no additional points. If you are a welfare mother with 5 kids, you actually loose a point.
Personally I think it’s a pretty good idea. It makes sense that the person who is potentially more knowledgeable on the subject have more say in it.
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Category: Comedy | Tags: Meritocracy, Point based electorate, politics // 6 Comments »