by Woeler » November 13th, 2013, 12:13 am
[quote="Kiburi"]
Yeah, but I bet that there are 17 year olds that DO know more about politics than adults. You'd be surprised about how many people make uninformed choices when voting, and don't see the whole picture for what it is. That said, I still think that the voting age should stay at 18. Also, just because you live there doesn't mean that you PAY TAXES to live there, and if you ask me, if you aren't paying taxes, you shouldn't be able to vote.[/quote]
Oh, there are. I'd say one in a thousand? I'm not surprised. To be honest most people are political idiots, and politicians like political idiots because they can be used, or actually misused. By adding the 17-yearold group to the votinggroup, you'll add a million idiots and a thousand politically rational people. The only people who profit from this are populists. Their weapon is the ignorance of their voters, and overall, youth is ignorant enough to fall for this.
What does the average 17-yearold know about the VAT?
What does the average 17-yearold know about NAFTA or the EU or ASEAN?
What does the average 17-yearold know about lawmaking?
What does the average 17-yearold know about theorists like Aristotle, Plato and Socrates?
What does the average 17-yearold know about international relationships?
What does the average 17-yearold know about war?
What does the average 17-yearold know about community, taxes, intervention, international law, the economy, the debt?
The answer is 'nothing', because it does not concern most of them.
And as far as I know, as long as one lives in a country one pays taxes. There are no 'none taxpayers' besides illegal people, but illegal people have no right to vote. Actually they have no rights at all.
[quote="Regulus"][quote="Woeler"][quote="KingCub"]I think its a good idea! I feel like in this day in age, people are begging to think and stay to live on there own at a younger age then ever before. I mean, I would not mind voting at the age of 17. Im living here, so why should I not get a say it who runs it?[/quote]
Because many young people don't know [censored] about politics. Now as an 18-yearold I might not say that, but I study politics at a university, which I think gives me a free-pas on this one.
Politics is not something everyone should be fiddling around with.
I think I'm even going one step further. Voting age up to 21 and one can only vote if one has a college degree (or higher).(of course that only goes for societies in which the government actually pays for education, otherwise this idea would be completely ridiculous)[/quote]
I totally agree with this, especially the bolded part. So many people, especially the uneducated ones, are way too ignorant to be able to vote.[/quote]
Welcome to the world of diplomademocracy. It's a bit of a mix between meritocratic democracy and technocratic democracy.
There are those who complain about the wind, there are those who hope the wind will change, --though the wise-- the wise adjust their sails.