Poll: The EU Referendum: How Will You Vote? (April Poll)

Should the United Kingdom remain a member of the European Union or leave the European Union?

  • Remain a member of the European Union

    Votes: 452 45.0%
  • Leave the European Union

    Votes: 553 55.0%

  • Total voters
    1,005
  • Poll closed .
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So you're saying we should be able to buy power in the EU?

Put in a more personal context: should one ever argue to enshrine inequality before the law on financial grounds? And how is a contribution-weighted subscriber democracy different from an autocratic oligarchy?

More bluntly, should the wealthy (net economic contributors) have more say in political matters, and should this right be enshrined in international law? How's that more fair and accountable?

If you don't want this sort of nightmare for citizens of any state, as an ideal, as we in the west don't; how can you justify it in the international political relationships and organisations like the EU?

In legal terms, it'd be a rather slippery slope.
 
Put in a more personal context: should one ever argue to enshrine inequality before the law on financial grounds? And how is a contribution-weighted subscriber democracy different from an autocratic oligarchy?

More bluntly, should the wealthy (net economic contributors) have more say in political matters, and should this right be enshrined in international law? How's that more fair and accountable?

If you don't want this sort of nightmare for citizens of any state, as an ideal, as we in the west don't; how can you justify it in the inter-state political relationships and organisations like the EU?

In legal terms, it'd be a rather slippery slope.

The same people that want this would go ape if it applied here. You get more votes in elections the richer you are
 
Put in a more personal context: should one ever argue to enshrine inequality before the law on financial grounds? And how is a contribution-weighted subscriber democracy different from an autocratic oligarchy?

More bluntly, should the wealthy (net economic contributors) have more say in political matters, and should this right be enshrined in international law? How's that more fair and accountable?

If you don't want this sort of nightmare for citizens of any state, as an ideal, as we in the west don't; how can you justify it in the international political relationships and organisations like the EU?

In legal terms, it'd be a rather slippery slope.

Would you suggest giving Bulgaria a seat at say, the UN Security Council?
 
Would you suggest giving Bulgaria a seat at say, the UN Security Council?

Do we deny Scottish MPs a vote on defence matters? What about prime ministers being from different parts of the UK, which in economic output and population are not equal? Should an MP from London hold greater powers than an MP from Yorkshire and Humber?

It's a bit of a tangent but: Bulgaria already held the rotating seat for Eastern Europe three times, iirc. And sure enough, for the benefit of world peace and stability, there's good reason to enlarge the number of permanent seats on the UNSC and make it more representative. Unless of course you subscribe to might is right, or believe that certain states should have preferential treatment on historical/nebulous prestige grounds. Though under these terms, however powerful one initially is, one ends up screwed eventually, with no legal recourse to turn to.

But it's apples and oranges: the EU and the UN are different organisations, with some overlapping history. Indeed, the former has proven far more effective at putting its jointly agreed resolutions into action on the ground; and defence is a subsidiary matter for member states as well, so again, there's no direct analogue between the UNSC and the security and defence cooperation in the EU specifically in terms of protocol.

And, yes, I'm well aware that one can find bias and disparity in international law and systems; it is not perfect; but this does not mean that the ideal of equality before the law should be chucked out of the window at the first sign of administrative difficulty, historical flux or pressure from extremists. That is of course if a more representative, democratic and accountable institution is the end goal.
 
The same people that want this would go ape if it applied here. You get more votes in elections the richer you are

I have often pondered the thought of having voting weighted according to the amount of tax you pay.

It would create an interesting dynamic. Voting to reduce taxes would after all reduce your influence.
 
I have often pondered the thought of having voting weighted according to the amount of tax you pay.

It would create an interesting dynamic. Voting to reduce taxes would after all reduce your influence.

A corporatocracy? I'm thinking board meetings and GSMs/ASMs when I look at the above, roughly. There are qualified voting systems in existence in the public sphere, not the least in the EU, but the idea is to qualify a majority to represent a set ratio of the total franchise for important decisions not contingent on income (also see specific rules for constitutional changes and the like); although there's the oblique argument that the most prosperous nations would on average be the most populous, this isn't an empirical law in practice.
 
I have often pondered the thought of having voting weighted according to the amount of tax you pay.

It would create an interesting dynamic. Voting to reduce taxes would after all reduce your influence.

Realistically if we look at all taxes levied against the public, the poorest tend to paying far more in general as a measure of their income.

So depends what metric you want to use, as ultimately if MPs were bound to domiciles of wealth, it would likely look like an inverse bellcurve, the middle class getting shafted (visually and literally) again.
 
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