At 09:34 13-02-01 -0800, Joshua wrote:
>Sonja van Baardwijk-Holten <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>>Let them [politicians] be annoyed at having to stand in line for a meal,
>>a
>>busticket or a seat on the plane.
>
>Erm... don't you order these on the phone?
Then let them personally keep redialing until they finally get through,
spend eternity on hold listening to Muzak, then get cut off before ever
getting through to the person they need and have to start all over.
> And anyone with a secretary (you do want them focusing on politics,
> right, not minutia?) should be delegating that sort of thing.
Which leaves out the significant percentage of ordinary citizens without
secretaries who must handle their own travel arrangements, etc., during
their lunch hours or breaks because they can't make such calls during
working hours, and of course by the time they get off work, the businesses
they need to deal with are closed.
>>Let them get angry over being caught up in
>>traffic every day
>
>I'm sure they are. There aren't special "politician only" lanes over here.
But many of them are sitting in the back seat talking on their cell phone
or something else while their driver deals with the traffic. Make the
politician sit there with nothing to do except wait for traffic to clear
while they watch their gas gauge hover on empty and the engine temperature
gauge climb into the red, and wonder if they're going to run out of gas
before getting to the next exit, burn up their engine, or get fired for
being late. Then perhaps they will do something about traffic congestion.
>>and the unworkabillity of stupid tax rules.
Best way to simplify the whole system: Make politicians do their own taxes
without help. On April 16th, they'll pass a flat-tax law or something
about as simple.
>That's what accountants are for. Over here, they're really cheap.
Define "cheap."
<grumpy mode off>
The point of the above is that many politicians are treated so well as a
result of their positions that they have little or no idea of what their
average constituent goes through on a daily basis. Is that what we want,
or would we prefer that the politicians be familiar with the everyday life
of the common person? After all, in a democracy/representative republic,
whose interests _should_ they be elected to look after?
Just some random thoughts . . .
-- Ronn! :)
