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On The Under-Represented American Citizen
Having just undergone the Presidential election and the democratic right of every citizen to vote and have their voice heard, we thought it interesting that of the world's major nations, the US citizen is in fact the second worst represented when it comes to government. The Chinese citizen, empirically at least, has a fractionally greater weight in their politician's actions. Only in India does each politician represent more of the nation's citizens. How long before we hear the chants of "Over-Taxed And Under-Represented"?
Chart: Goldman Sachs
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No representation without taxation!
At least, US beats China for a thing.
We have more people in prison.
I'm sure there are others.
Probably more guns per capita as well....
Number of people a US 'Parliamentarian' represents...
600
(Which also just happens to coincide with the number of US billionaires...)
I believe it is 600,000. The US Rep in my congressional district "represents" a population of 710,000. She clearly does not represent me however. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz only represents the interests of whatever the President's people tell her. A puppet in the truest sense.
Good point... I'm just a touch high on the billionaire count as well (400+).
Even with 600,000 citizens per elected member they do not represent you but their financial and organizational sponsors.
OT eponym of the day: carny
A "carny" is anyone who runs a "joint" (booth), "grab joint" (food stand), game, or ride at a carnival, boardwalk or amusement park.
The word carny is thought to have become popularized around 1931 in North America, when it was first colloquially used to describe "one who works at a carnival.
The carny vocabulary is traditionally part of carnival cant, a secret language, and is an ever-changing form of communication, in large part designed to be impossible to understand by an outsider. Thus, as words are assimilated into the culture at large, they lose their function and are replaced by other more obscure or insular terms
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carny#Carny_language
http://www.goodmagic.com/carny/car_a-c.htm
government loves population increases even with illegals.
100 senators for population pyramid scheme means politicians increase in relative power and status
So what do you want? Another 1000 Congress Critters?
mark carney lingo
http://www.forexlive.com/forex-jargon/
example: "Gamma refers to the rate of change in an option’s delta relative to the price of the underlying asset. "
Umm... the greeks ain't that difficult a concept...
Debbie Wasserman-Schultz is why we have the word 'cunt'.
Actually the parlaimentarians only represent Goldman Sachs and Sons so this chart is entirely WRONG
If you want pull in politics step 1 is to become a convention delegate. Then your vote is one of a few thousand instead of one of millions.
or if your sovereign state leaves the union
If you truly want to be better represented rather than just complain about it, the choice is in your hands. As a convention delegate my opinion has been solicited by every single statewide candidate for office as well as federal House and Senate candidates.
Not sure of I agree with the intent of the article. I sure as shit don't want MORE dickhead politicians.
Disagree.
The locking of # of representatives to 435 in the early 1800's is one of the major reasons why we're in this sorry state now.
It will take a reboot to fix things, but politicians that:
1. Do not accept money from anyone related to their service
2. Receive a modest annual stipend and no other benefits, something along the lines of $10000 2012-USD per year
3. Receive no special favors
4. Do not accept any foreign titles (INCLUDING ESQ)
5. Represent no more than 100000 persons
6. Does not serve more than one term per 20 years
would provide for a much more fair and balanced republic than the present corporate inverted fascist state the US is now.
Yes, morality is a major issue, but amorality and ambivalence take a long time for any interested interloper to gestate in the populace. A reboot is the only way that any of this would be possible.
Also, representation should be considered to be a "proxy vote" of the populace.
In which case, if representative #1 has 99,602 constituents and representative #2 has 87,308 constituents, the vote of representative #1 would be weighted 99602 and representative #2 would be weighted 87308 so there is no power dilution simply due to differences in district size. This may also have a positive impact in busting political parties.
The Repubs would never go for that...
They would be in the wildnerness now if not for the gerrrymandering based on the 2010 census....
At a minimum, there should be no pension plan for congressional members. The job was never intended to be a career. From that mistake grew the idea that congress is exempt from congresses' laws, which harkens back to Caesar, for Pete's sake!
Good point. The job was initially a volunteer, unpaid position. If a Constitutional amendment was passed to limit the pay of each member of Congress to the average per capita income in the US, that would make more representation worth it, for sure.
Edit: That would encourage more people who actually have real jobs/businesses to run, people who are more in touch with the struggles of the middle class. The suggestions above are good also.
Edit 2: Dammit, didn't think of this earlier......if the power of the Federal govt were decreased significantly, that would also decrease the need for Federal representation. Several ways to go about this.
Exactly right mutt.
The more reps we have in the house the less influence the the lobbyists would have. If lobbyists had say 5000 reps they had to try to rangle up, it would add to greatly to the cost of buying votes. We also would have more reps voting independently and doing what is correct for their constituents rather than voting in the manner that allows their own party help them get reelected. The less amount people a representative is beholden too to be reelected, the better off we all would be.
COTUS ArticleI Section 2: The Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand, but each State shall have at Least one Representative;
Those with wealth and power will always find a "legal" way of buying political influence. Getting around the above restrictions would be child's play. Just more Government War on X type thinking that makes totally unrealistic assumptions about human nature.
Government offices need to be reduced in number, power and scope to the degree that they aren't worth buying in the first place.
I don't need a "representative." And have no violent desires to control others through one. Thanks anyway.
Felons can't vote. Solution is to incarcerate more people. /sarc
Will there be voting booths in FEMA camps?
yes they will have a function similar to the call-in numbers on American Idol
The US imprisons more people, but I think China executes more people.
Texas and Florida doing their best China impersonations
Florida is a slacker.
Where would they put 'em if US did have more representatives? Capitol bldg can only hold so many. Oh, that's right, place is empty anyway most of the time, they're all out seeking re-election 24/7.
edit: oops, Catullus said it below already, said it better.
Its worked out well for Greece
Yes, but who really wants MOAR politicians??
I can not imagine Congress getting LESS dysfunctional with twice as many representatives, can you?
The secret is... smaller countries.
There was some talk in Texas not-so-long ago along those lines...
E unum pluribus bitchez!
There is wisdom to that.
Credit Mike Church: "If at first you don't secede, try, try, again!"
Secession Bitchez!
The secret is smaller fucking government.
What about small government which implies few politicians which implies a high politician/nr-of-voters ratio ?
But then again, a small government would also imply low costs and small budget deficits.....
I wish. If we closed down the federal departments which are not authorized by the constitution, we would have a surplus, not a $1.5 trillion deficit, even at today's tax revenue numbers.
I will donate to anyone who takes these issues to the supreme court even though I am not a US citizen.
Wishful thinking....
Wishful so far. I'm still dreaming of the day that no more dollars can be borrowed or manufactured, at which point my dream will come true.
John Lennon wrote a song for you...
Google "Imagine"....
Fewer politicians would mean easier to buy. Easier to control.
Simply shrinking government would help centralize power. I think decentralization would help dissipate undue power.
We have not had a representative government in the US for decades. Max Keiser says the US is a kakistocracy, rule by the worst.
That is why we have the Patriot Act, NDAA, wars all over the world, war on terror, torture, unlimited QE, bank bailouts in 2008, no bankster prosecutions, extra-judicial drone killings, and now 30,000 drones to spy over Americans.
Since when have we had representative government?
To play devils advocate, have you interacted with the average American? I think J6P is quite ok with what is going on, sure he is functionally brain dead but he seems pretty happy in his entertainment haze. Get the sports and the porn on and they can live it up with the GMO foods and chemical dependency.
I suppose humanity has advanced from Roman times - bread and circuses and porn. The fluoride in the water is just another bonus.
I talk to Joe fairly often. He's not brain dead at all. He's really pissed off, but he knows there's nothing he can do about things without landing in jail or extremely dead. So he watches the sports and porn to deal with it.
Joe needs a six pack just to cope with the crap he sees in his real world life. Don't be dissin' Joe if you haven't walked in his steel toed boots.
Are you kidding, the US has the best CONgress money can buy! Ask any lobbyist. And with such luminary minds as Hank "Sinking Guam" Johnson America's bright future is assured.
I gotta ask if any corporate spokesperson was as flagrantly stupid or openly corrupt as the average CONgress person would you buy their stocks or bonds? Good thing the foreigners can't speak English I guess...oh wait they can...shit!!!
I disagree. The US has the shittiest CONgress money can buy. Politicians are the losers who are too lazy or stupid to get in there and steal on their own initiative.
If the House were the size per voting capita as when the US was first created, there'd be 20,000 representatives. Effectively 1 rep for every 1,000 people. Sort of like the size of a high school. Enough to where you would actually know the person. Maybe be able to tell them your concerns.
I'm all for it.
It would remove the influence of lobbyists (you're going to buy off 10,000 representatives?!), you'd actually know the person you're electing, the influence of the party system would be nil, you'd never get anything "done", and you'd dilute the power of the Pelosi's and Boehner's of the world. What's there not to like?
Expand Congress!!!
Make every citizen a House rep. We have the technology to make it happen. No more Pelosi and Boner.
Absolutely the worst post. Opposite of good in every way.
I gave him a green for the idea. While I dont think its a good idea for everyone to be a Rep. we could go back to how the Greeks did it. They had one house that was made up of average citizens who simply showed up that day. It was more like Jury duty but they willingly volunteered to hear legislation and vote.
I dont remember all the details, its been awhile since I read the book (First Democracy I think)
As I recall, the Athenian Polis was all free men, and they felt it a civic duty to go to all the meetings. Any member of the Polis could speak on an issue. Attending was a problem for the farmers outside the city because they had to travel and could not work their farms and orchards. Athenians also thought there was a maximum size for an efficient Polis (a few thousand?). Sparta, though Greek, had a vastly different society. Athens kept trying to spread pure democracy, but was often countered by oligarchs, contol of cities would change often. This is from memory, I welcome corrections.
Then we can have Google Trends tally the public sentiment and use a repurposed HF trading bot to take action on our behalf without even having to think about the consequences. Now THAT'S DEMOCRACY.
Catullus
Your post was perfect in every way.
As long as the payroll doesn't change, I'm fine with that. Each member gets 1/45 of a current member's salary. $3,000 per year is plenty for what they do.
Only the really lame ones try to get by on the salary even now. It's all about 'the kindness of strangers.'
AGREED AGREED AGREED
Dilution of power to diffuse the influence of lobbyists is definitely the answer.
Also, repeal the 17th Amendment and make the states elect senators again.
What to do about the executive branch now, though?
I'll present a different solution. Limit Congress and the President to their actual Constituitonal powers, do away with the income tax amendment, limit spending and therefore the size of government. A federal government with little power and influence would attract few lobbyists and would be easier controlled by the citizens, and not attract career politicans hungry for power.
Limit Government!!!
Tried that. Doesn't work.
I remember that based on the Jacksonian era, the House of Representatives would have about 5,000 members today to have the same proportionality....
This way Republicans can pretend they are a viable party. Taxation without representation is what ex Goldmanites at Central Banks pursue. Ironic that this graph was produced by the squid.
And what good did it do Greece to have more of the thieving, robbing snakes supported per head of population?
the graph is somewhat inaccurate. greece only is represented in regard to their law. they have no representation in regard to the amount of currency. and you ask what good it has done greece? billions and billions and billions of of eruos of good. their policiticians for years got them way more then the people produce and continue to do so.
If thieving, robbing snakes aren't supported by government salaries, they tend to go independent.
Yes, this is absolutely correct. That's why the system was originally designed to be bottom-up. It is often pointed out that Switzerland works this way, where the central government is basically nonexistent. The power is in the local cantons. It was the same in the US...until Lincoln.
Andrea Seabrook, formerly of NPR did an episode on her new project DecodeDC about the same: http://www.decodedc.com/home/2012/9/14/episode-one-house-of-misrepresent...
This is one of the most direct causes of the usurpation of the federal and many state governments by special, partisan and/or corporate interests over the will of the people, and what tightens the grip of the R/D political duopoly.
You can't get elected in a district with 100,000's of people without a ton of money to run the campaign. That makes candidates ultimately beholden to the two parties and their money masters.
The 17th allows the same thing to happen for senatorial representation. They no longer represent their states as originally intended; they now represent the mostly out-of-state monied interests that got them elected.
With few exceptions, Congress is now fully bought and paid. Term limits will do nothing to stop this dynamic; the House must be expanded and the 17th repealled. The chances of rolling back this 100 year perversion of the Republic is now slim.
MethodMan from Mish's board?
I didn't see where it said this was Federal representation although it may be. State reps, county commissioners and city councils (and their equivalents in other countries) don't count? Fed taxes aren't the only thing that bites me. How about a graph of the number of those with police powers vs. population? Or bureaucrats vs. population? Or the number of laws and regulations? Or the size of the tax code?
The UN website keeps track of few metrics including prisioners per capita which is a good one. The US not only has the highest in the world, but has the highest in history (or UN records anyway) at 900 prisioners/100,000 citizens.
A crimminal gang runs the US. And, they hire the politicians as front persons. Now at this stage of the game the fraud if eating into the upper middle class and the whole charade is collapsing.
They better give me my white ObamaPhone M'Fers.
What country has the most interns, secretaries, oops...personal assistants, pages, gophers, chauffeurs, body guards, and ass kissers per representaive? That's where we might do better.
It's not quantity; it's quality!
I am offended by this whole thought process. I live in Arizona and I can tell you straight up that McCain is in now way a representative of me.
Face it dudes, if you are middle class then only about three people in Congress represent you.
More big government propaganda.
Signed: an American.
Now we know that the US leadership does not represent us, and it makes no difference if or who you vote for. We need a revolution, how can we get started?
If, say, you multiplied the number of Congressmen by 10, you'd have 10x the influence over yours, but he'd have 1/10 as much influence in Congress. Within a fixed-size polity, power is a zero-sum game.
OTOH if authority is delegated to smaller polities*, the power of individual voters is vastly increased. See Iceland, Luxembourg, Lichtenstein, Monaco, and Switzerland (where important decisions are made at the cantonal or municipal level), as places where the opinions of citizens actually matter.
*Especially if they're allowed to set their own tax rates. No wonder bureaucrats in Washington and Brussels push so hard for "tax harmonization".