Living off the government tit

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GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

TPRJones sed:

I propose that anyone who receives 25% or more of their fiscal support from a government agency gives up his or her right to vote in that year. This would apply to folks on welfare, military personel, government employees, and even employees of contracting companies who's revenue is derived at least 25% from governmental contracts.

This might help cut down on the "bread & circuses" phenomenon. Those who aren't sharing in the "bread & circuses" are the one's that get to vote whether they should be continued or not.

Discuss.

EDIT - Or, maybe even better, anyone who receives (directly, or through one or more pass-through agencies) more money FROM governmental agencies than they pay in taxes TO governmental agencies give up thier right to vote. If you make a net income from the consideration of all governmental incomes and taxes and tax credits, you no vote. That's probably better than an arbitrary percentage.

Then Thib sed:

TPRJones wrote:Or, maybe even better, anyone who receives (directly, or through one or more pass-through agencies) more money FROM governmental agencies than they pay in taxes TO governmental agencies give up thier right to vote. If you make a net income from the consideration of all governmental incomes and taxes and tax credits, you no vote. That's probably better than an arbitrary percentage.

I like it.
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Mommy Dearest
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Post by Mommy Dearest »

Does that include Social Security?
GORDON
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Post by GORDON »

If it includes military salaries, which are taxed for some reason, I'm sure they're including Social Security.
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Paul
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Post by Paul »

What about local government? Pretty much all my previous jobs have been working for local governments. When I worked for L.A. City, would that just invalidate me for city politics or from Federal as well?
TPRJones
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Post by TPRJones »

Good points. Let's say maybe it shouldn't include retirement incomes (which are really just, in theory, being paid back what you've already paid over the years ... yes, I know that's not how it works, but maybe in America II it should be) and that it can be individually considered for each level of government.

One interesting upshot is that politicians (and the families supported by them) can't vote in their own level of government (unless their alternate income sources overshadow their governmental salaries, or they waive their governmental salaries).
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Paul
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Post by Paul »

Lets say I made $10 billion dollars as a dijon mustard tycoon. I'd pay millions in taxes, but there isn't any political job I could hold that would pay me even half of what I'd be paying in taxes.

Once on power, all government facilities will use Paul's Dijon Mustard, taxes on Grey Poupon with quadrouple, and I'll initiate the "dijon mustard as an alternative fuel program."
__

On a more serious note, I question fairness of the right to vote based on whom your employer sells to. If I lived in a small town that had a Lockheed plant as it's primary employer, my town would have very little politcal say.

Also, I'm not sure if the floor sweeper at a Toyota plant should have a vote when the floor sweeper at Lockheed does not. It's not as if they have any control over whom their employer sells to.

Oh... and what about times of war? During WWII just about every manufacturer (auto, ships, steel factories, etc.) had the government as their primary consumer. With so many people drafted, heck, even agriculture would have a disproportionate government sales ratio.
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Post by TPRJones »

Paul wrote:It's not as if they have any control over whom their employer sells to.
Sure they do. If you apply for a job with Lockheed Martin, you go into it knowing the situation. In America II, we'll be starting out from scratch so it won't take anyone by surprise.

However, that having been said, you may still have a point. It's not like the line workers and floor sweepers have much clout in the company or enough of an interest in the amount of money flowing into the company from government sources to have their vote compromised by personal intrest. So, another tweak: the disenfranchisement of employees of government contractors is limited to those that are exempt from overtime. That puts it on managers and the like - the white-collar crowd - the the floor sweeper gets to keep voting. Better?
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Post by TheCatt »

Too many tweaks.

Everyone can vote, but we, the supreme council, get veto power.

And can executively declare whatever we want.
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Post by mbilderback »

I say KISS. You can only vote if you do not work directly for the level of government to be voting on. I could vote, for instance, in the prez elections, but I could not vote in the county elections. Problem solved. Quit trying to include everyone getting money third and forth handed from the gumment. Also, no one who receives money directly from the government can vote, with SSI as a noted exception. No welfare, WIC, or othe such crap. If you can't contribute to society, you can't have a vote in society.
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Post by GORDON »

Will there even BE Social Security in America II?

There might already be a thread answering that question.
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TPRJones
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Post by TPRJones »

mbilderback wrote:You can only vote if you do not work directly for the level of government to be voting on ... Quit trying to include everyone getting money third and forth handed from the gumment.
You're right, it's getting too complicated.

The original reason I added that was because I was thinking that there would be some companies set up specifically to avoid the voting thing, but now that I think about it further, this is not necessarily a bad thing. It has a mild tendancy to encourage outsourcing of governmental functions to private industry, which is in most cases a good thing.
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