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coolmodelguy
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Comments by "coolmodelguy" (@coolmodelguy6304) on "VICE TV" channel.
Hit the bullseye.
38
@sorin_ea6 - Banning political donations will not work, that move would simply be undone by the wealthy working in the background. All systems require limits, in this case and so many others the solution is to cap individual wealth. If you think that is not a smart idea, then think about any system you can imagine without upper and lower limits. Your car engine for example, could it operate properly without upper and lower limits? How about a tree? How about an airplane, or a star? The only reason we think there should be no limits to individual wealth is because the wealthy spent a lot of money to plant that idea in our heads and now we are all just like those trained pigeons.
28
@TJHTouring - Not well enough. Ireland is the land of corporate tax dodgers and Canada is owned by oil and logging corps. In both countries the wealthy own the government, so restrictions on political donations is not the answer.
6
@TJHTouring - I'm all for improvements. The reality is however, that reforms are always eroded and then eliminated by wealthy interests. If we really want to solve problems, then we have to address the means by which problem solving is stymied over and over again. Wealth equals power, so if we are ever going to get reforms that stick we must directly address the manner in which reforms are fragmented and blocked, that means taking down power behind the curtain. That in turn means capping individual wealth to the point where the people who vote have the power to make changes stick. Refuse to do that and we are just stuck in the same leaky boat as always.
2
@TJHTouring - That is a good start. In our local district elections there is a $2500 limit on individual donations, yet when tracking donations the number of donors each gave the maximum with no smaller donations at all. Now I don't know about Australia, but here in California there are very few regular people who can afford to make a $100 donation, much less a maximum donation. This indicates that the donor class is made up of the top 10% income bracket which has a vastly different agenda than the working classes below that top 10%. The best method I believe is to eliminate private funding of elections altogether and have government funding of elections with a campaign finance cap. That way the wealthy cannot dominate elections the way they do now.
1