Equality Questioned (updated 15jul13)

A nation ignorant and free, that never was and never shall be.  Thomas Jefferson

George Rebane

Here’s a notion that should set progressive hearts palpitating, perhaps even inducing a case or two of apoplexy.  Should citizens deemed mentally (not physically) incapable of caring for themselves be granted a full franchise in a republican democracy?

In these pages this notion has risen implicitly over the years, and most recently occurred to me again during a thread on food stamps that developed in the comment stream of ‘Mindbending Marijuana’.  There I was asked whether I supported foodstamps, the 80% hidden component that has historically been included in past farm bills, and that was recently excised from the current House version going through Congress.  I repeat an edited version of my reply.

I don't know what it takes to qualify for today's food stamps program. While I support a level of government (collective) financial assistance to individuals, I favor a comprehensive cash payment rather than separate payments for food, healthcare, housing, ... . I want the individual to be responsible for spending the welfare money as he sees fit.

For government to determine your needs and allocate your transfer payments for you is more than demeaning in my eyes.  As such, it is also society's judgment on your mental condition.  I feel that if you are incapable of 1) correctly allocating your monies (a mental task) to care for yourself, and 2) remain in a chronic situation in which you are under the care of others, then that should impact your franchise as a citizen in some significant manner. In short, a deficient mentality affects all of one's decisions, and not decisions arbitrarily assigned to be faulty in these domains but perfectly good in those domains.

Over the last forty some years we have witnessed the political purchasing power of welfare in all of its various forms.  The most obvious aspect and one that has a growing momentum is transfer payments that now seeks to have government manage our healthcare needs.  The summary effect of all these ‘benefits’ is the gathering and exploitation of the mendicants who see themselves as the beneficiaries of certain political ideologies and politicians.  I am on record for saying that we have already passed the tipping point on our democracy tilting toward socialism as a waypoint to autocracy.

But let’s consider that I am wrong, that through some restructuring of how we voters choose our representatives we can avoid our apparent fate.  How do we do this?  I suggest that we reconsider the matter of voting franchise and how it might be exercised in our republic.  And for that I pose the following.

Consider the working mother of a contemporary family.  She holds down a respectable job, raises her children, is a functional life partner to her husband, keeps the house and its accounts, volunteers/participates in community activities, and manages to stay up on the issues that affect her community and nation.

Then take someone whom society deems to be sufficiently mentally impaired that they cannot be trusted to manage their own budget, cannot spend appropriate sums for their divers needs like health, housing and food even if the money is given to them, cannot hold a job, and perhaps has other cognitive deficiencies like marginal literacy and comprehensive innumeracy which prevents even a cursory understanding of the issues facing community and country.  In short, society has already put in place structures and organizations that are required to maintain this person from destitution or resorting to crime.  And these funds are doled transfer payments supplied by the likes of the woman described above.

These two people are as different as can be in the sense of how they relate to their source of sustenance.  One is productive and proficient, and the other is existentially inept.  Yet when they enter their respective voting booths, they are deemed by the state to be equal – the inept getter’s vote can and will effectively cancel the provider’s vote.  (We note that we already discriminate in franchising certain kinds of citizens - e.g. children and the institutionalized insane.)

Bryan Caplan described what this kind of equality (as opposed to equality in front of the law) has already brought about in The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies (2007).  This scholarly work has been assiduously ignored by all public figures of every political stripe.  I offer it again as a starting point in reconsidering the franchise of citizens in a sustainable democratic republic.

[15jul13 update]  Asked to offer my own thoughts on a citizen qualifying for the voting franchise, I offer the following thoughts as a rough starting point in order to invite thoughtful criticism and/or constructive edits.  First a couple of observations –

•    Current suffrage is not universal; we already deny the vote to children, felons, and the institutionally insane, among others.  The under-aged and insane are presumably prohibited because they don’t have the mental capacity to adequately understand and process the information required to make a reasoned decision, and therefore may fall prey to being influenced by others to vote against their best interest, or to amplify another’s vote.
•    The seminal assumption that underelies the vote, is that the voter understands what he’s voting for when he submits his ballot.  In other words, that it is a duly considered statement of freely expressed individual preference.

My nostrums on who should be allowed to vote are conditioned entirely on the second point above - that the voter has the capacity to independently acquire minimal information upon which to base his vote (please note that he doesn't even have to demonstrate such understanding).  And to give greater assurances of that capacity, a set of proxy skills should be demonstrated by the prospective voter before being granted the franchise.  The set of exact requirements, as determined by the several states, should then be based on the following points.

•    Only citizens may vote.
•    The vote shall not be denied any citizen on the basis of race, gender, sexual orientation, educational background, ownership of property, status of wealth/indebtedness, or condition of un/employment.
•    No one institutionalized for mental or criminal reasons (including being on parole) shall be granted suffrage.  However, once being released, full voting privileges will be restored upon passing the applicable literacy/numeracy test described below.
•    Voters shall pass a basic literacy test (similar to drivers’ license tests) before granted suffrage, and periodically (say every ten years) thereafter.  Voters must demonstrate ‘functional literacy’ as defined by the Dept of Education (see NAAL, the longitudinal survey of adult literacy conducted by the National Center for Educational Statistics).  The test shall also include and/or be given within the context of the informational requirements demanded of naturalized citizens as determined by the federal government.
•    Voters shall demonstrate minimal numeracy (‘numerical literacy’) skills in basic arithmetic (add, subtract, multiply, divide) including understanding what is a percentage.  Again see the NCES longitudinal survey.
•    There is no limit to the number of times the test may be taken.
•    The voter eligibility status will be reflected on a person’s driver’s license, state issued ID, or other such commonly carried form of identification that can be presented to poll or voter registration workers (or its PIN entered for online voting or by snail mail).

Thoughts?

Comments

[Bill Tozer]

Ben, in the Holy Bible (can I say Holy Bible or am I allowed only to say Holy Koran?, but I digress once again). Hmm. Restart. In the Holy Bible the Children of Israel were slaves for 400 hundred years. When they left Egypt, immediately things got dicey and they clamored to go back. At least in Egypt they knew where their bread was coming from. They knew what to expect, despite horrid living conditions. They had the slave mentality.

God was displeased with them and their slave mentality. He said no one of that generation (even Moses) could step foot in the Promised Land. They wandered around the desert until that generation all died off and only the new generation who did not have the slave mentality was able to enter the Land of Milk and Honey.

That is how the story goes. I see and know your point quite well and I read Black Like Me in grammer school and Malcolm X in jr. high. Yes, there is a black experience that we don't share.

My deep concern is some of the liberal persuasion keep parading the former slaves around and around in the wilderness and they are not entering the Promised Land. Its like they dig up dead slaves to assuage themselves with.

Don't know if it is all white guilt (read Jefferson's adjectives and nouns concerning the savages eating acorns) or trying to make yourself morally superior or what. The longer you make excuses for someone the longer it takes for them to be accountable for their actions. The longer we keep bringing up slavery, the longer our fellow Americans cling to the slave mentality. Where my Obamaphone?

Bill Crosby, Barrack Obama, and countless others have tried to get the black community to stand up and clean house. The NAACP has barred conservative black folk who voice the accountable theme. This should only be discussed in-house, not in public Bill Cosby was admonished. When Candidate Obama voiced the same theme, The Godly and Most Holy Reverend Jackson said he wanted to cut Barrack's dingle berries off with a knife. How violent.

Where my Obamaphone? There is a time to stop making excuses for little Johnnie. Maybe when all those from the Civil Rights Era die off, then real change can be made and we can happily enter the post racial era with a new generation to whom slavery and the slave mentality is in the dust bin
of a foggy long ago bad dream.

[Ben Emery]

Bill,
This is the point of it all, nobody is making up excuses but rather stating we don't go from A to Z of a 500 year mentality in the span of a single lifetime. Laws are passed to try and force the change to happen more rapidly but it is a slow process to reverse centuries of taught prejudices. Your example from the bible stops a bit short of the holocaust and the remnants of the jew propaganda of being jewish global banking conspiracies and sayings things like "getting jewed". Go to minute 5:00 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0PRB4YsXn4

I hope you noticed I haven't called people immoral on this thread because I get how this is a long process and we will all be dead and gone before people of color have complete equality. I had very close friends growing up that were Korean, Mexican Indian, Filipino, Black, India Indian, and Vietnamese. My best friend for many years was born and lived in Tennessee until 5th grade. He was black. I had long conversations in high school with all his relatives who live with his family. I also would hang out in an all black neighborhoods and would experience how the police treated them and myself. It is way different and it is impossible to understand unless you have experienced it. I was harassed by the police for years until I moved away from where I grew up. I cannot tell you how many times I was handcuffed, slammed against the hood of the cop car, thrown in the back and threatened, car emptied out and searched, warned for doing nothing but hanging out in a black neighborhood. I was never cited or arrested during any of these incidents, just intimidated.

Ok, here is another story from my life.

My black friend I mentioned above got me a job at the Century movie theaters in high school. He had worked there for about 6 months before I was hired. Within a few weeks I was handling the money at the window and behind the counter, which had a very small raise attached to it. My friend was still tearing tickets at the door despite him basically training me on everything but the register. I asked one of the shift managers why he is still tearing tickets and sweeping the floor. The shift manager told me the the theater manager didn't want blacks handling the money because they can't help themselves. The theater manager was from Texas. So my friend who was capable enough, who had put in the time, who had never done anything to deserve suspicion was stuck at the lowest paying job at the theater and trained employee after employee who would get promoted over him within a few weeks. I went to the theater manager to try and get her to change her mind. I tried this for months and finally I quit over it. This is a very low level minimum wage type job and even at that level a black male was locked into the lowest paying position.

[L]

Just to set the record straight, the alleged racial epithet used wasn't "hippo," it was "water buffalo."

Got to wonder about the bona fides of someone who would know that "hippo" is a Romanian insult towards Gypsies!

[Michael Anderson]

Hey fish, you owe Ben Emery an apology. Your abusive rant about him not being a real person was very un-fish-like (since fish seem to be pretty cool, calm and collected, at least until the hook is set).

Anyway, in order to facilitate your promised apology, I will personally attest that Ben Emery does indeed exist in human form, I have touched his skin several times and it is white, though he does have a bit of a red neck (-; But that red neck comes from him working his ass off, so he is by no means a limousine liberal, or a welfare dude driving a pink Cadillac.

Next time he runs for office you should go shake his hand with your fin.

Regarding the continued discussion re. the Republican party and conservatarians going down in flames, I offer this latest column by Tom Friedman. As I have mentioned before, I am not a big fan of Tom's columns, but he gets it right occasionally and he has done so here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/opinion/friedman-if-churchill-could-see-us-now.html?hp

“The Republicans claim they are interested in free markets, but instead of trying to flatten the continent, they are fracturing it,” added Pastor. “Instead of eliminating the huge rules of origin tax and creating a common external tariff and a seamless continental market, they want to wall off our neighbors.”

AND...

"...we will also be telling the Mexicans and the Canadians that we view them as threats, not as partners. The whole approach is shortsighted, does not play to our strengths, increases the deficit and ignores where the world is going and how America can best compete and lead within it. Churchill would be aghast."

[Ben Emery]

Michael,
Thanks for sticking up for me but Fish doesn't owe me an apology. I think it pretty funny that my authenticity is challenged by a guy going as "Fish". What I am doing is challenging Fish and others to look at the way they are seeing world. Conservatives don't except change well. Especially when that change is a tradition that has been ingrained subliminally your whole life. White privilege in America is hard to see unless your willing to see it.

[Ben Emery]

This very real man has to go his very real job to spray a very real 50 gallons of compost tea on our very real crops and feed very real animals.

[fish]

Emeryism: the haunting fear that someone, somewhere historically treated someone else poorly

My apologies to Mencken for the appropriation and modification of his take on Puritanism.

[stevenfrisch]

Posted by: L | 16 July 2013 at 11:09 PM

Not quite sure what "L" is referencing when he says the racial epitaph used was 'water buffalo' and not 'hippo', but as the originator of the epitaph charged rant the term I used was 'hippo'. I first heard it in Chicago as a boy in the largely Italian, Czhech and Bohemian neighborhood I grew up in as a mispronunciation of the the more widely used 'gippo' or 'gyypo' to describe Gypsies. I found it funny as a boy because as my father pointed out at the time the "Bohunks using the slur did not realize that they were pronouncing it wrong". I'm not sure why 'L' would question the bono fides of one who is simply culturally aware as a child!

I will say it again, this is nothing but verbal masturbation over a ridiculous conservative fantasy--kind of like the whole Tea Party is--literacy tests [to say nothing of the uberfantasy 'numeracy' tests] have been consistently rejected by the SCOTUS and in the future those who fear the 'loss of American culture' are just going to have to adapt or attrit (nice way of saying just die of old age grousing all the way).

[stevenfrisch]

By the way I notice almost none of the regular posters here actually have a real job like Ben, Michael, Paul and I do! You go spread manure Ben, Paul will do the news, Michael will manage our networks, and I will save energy and land. The rest of you can go collect your gubmint pension checks!

[Todd Juvinall]

Excellent post there SteveF. I agree with you that BenE is spreading manure, MichaelA is networking the perverse at Burning Man, and you are saving energy by keeping your gas bag in the closet. PaulE I have more respect for so I will give him credit for trying to be a rational m,an.

[fish]

Anyway, in order to facilitate your promised apology, I will personally attest that Ben Emery does indeed exist in human form, I have touched his skin several times and it is white, though he does have a bit of a red neck (-; But that red neck comes from him working his ass off, so he is by no means a limousine liberal, or a welfare dude driving a pink Cadillac.

Next time he runs for office you should go shake his hand with your fin.

As you have vouched for his existence I offer an apology for having questioned it. Additionally Mr. Civil Libertarian should realize the a degree of anonymity during the discussion of ideas is a good thing. If he chooses to post using his real name that is his right.

Regarding the continued discussion re. the Republican party and conservatarians going down in flames, I offer this latest column by Tom Friedman. As I have mentioned before, I am not a big fan of Tom's columns, but he gets it right occasionally and he has done so here: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/opinion/friedman-if-churchill-could-see-us-now.html?hp

“The Republicans claim they are interested in free markets, but instead of trying to flatten the continent, they are fracturing it,” added Pastor. “Instead of eliminating the huge rules of origin tax and creating a common external tariff and a seamless continental market, they want to wall off our neighbors.”

Michael I find that Tom Friedman is a "reliable contrarian indicator". If I see Tom Friedman running out of a burning building it is my immediate assumption that running in is a sounder course of action.

AND...

"...we will also be telling the Mexicans and the Canadians that we view them as threats, not as partners. The whole approach is shortsighted, does not play to our strengths, increases the deficit and ignores where the world is going and how America can best compete and lead within it. Churchill would be aghast."

Pastor is a useless hack who burned through his 15 minutes of fame during the whole Trans Texas Corridor kerfuffle. But if you like him.......

[Gregory]

Spreading manure and creating even one sided news does create value. Sysadmins do the grunt work that software engineers don't want to do; without the sanitation engineers of computing, software engineers trying to create the products that drive revenue would be continually distracted from their primary tasks.

council
Noun
1. An advisory, deliberative, or legislative body of people formally constituted and meeting regularly.
2. A body of people elected to manage the affairs of a city, county, or other municipal district.

Unfortunately, rent-seeking is never productive and the so-called Sierra Business Council (it doesn't match any definition of council I can find) can't seem to do all those great things without not being completely honest about what it is trying to do.

[Michael Anderson]

Greg, you can't even deliver a decent compliment. For Christ's sake, just say something like "thanks for taking out my garbage, Michael."

Damning with faint praise, Jesus H...

[Gregory]

You haven't taken out my garbage, Mike, so you don't get any thanks. Suck it up. However, you do have my heartfelt thanks for confirming to RR readers your role within the computer and networking world.

[stevenfrisch]

Hey Greg your one man jihad against my organization is passé. No one but you cares. But that's OK just keep doing it and you will continue to be irrelevant to the conversation, kind of like you appear to be in life!

By the way what are you doing these days to 'create wealth'? Will anyone in Nevada County even hire you in your professed field?

[George Rebane]

Gentlemen, let's give this little lovers' quarrel a rest, and offer a comment of some benefit.

[Gregory]

Sorry Frisch, but while there are a few local jobs of the garbage collection sort, there hasn't been any computer networking R&D investment in Nevada County for quite awhile.

[Bill Tozer]

Garbage collection is now considered a green job. There were thousands of refuge rangers before Obama, and now the trash handlers are all mean green recycling machines. Thank heavens for Obama adding all these new green jobs. Even painted their trucks green.. Same tasks, same pay, just the title "green job". Only in Amerika.

[stevenfrisch]

All I know is that if I were out of work I would collect garbage. Never been out of work [other than by design to travel] more than 2 weeks in my life.
Work is an inherently social and individual good, a virtuous activity.

The oft quoted Benjamin Franklin said "It is the working man who is the happy man. It is the idle man who is the miserable man."

[Gregory]

Steve, most people do live paycheck to paycheck and, based on your photos and the fact a friend of Steele's mistook me for you, I suspect you're too old and fat to get a job collecting garbage.

[Gregory]

Finally, I'm remarkably happy, especially when Frisch is both telling me no one pays attention to my denigrations of the so-called Sierra Business Council all the while he pounds on me for doing so. If I was so ineffective he'd be ignoring me. During the NH2020 fiasco, reading about the Sierra Business Council in the local rags conjured up a real council of businesses making their needs known, and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one who was left with that impression.

The "garbage collection" jobs I was referring to are low level software technician jobs. I do that for me, I do that for friends and family. I don't do that for a living. Same thing for washing the dishes, which I doubt Steven would go back to if the SBC gig disappeared.

Now, I've a deck to finish... the last of the 850 sq.ft. is down, next, a mad dash to install the railing and doing some prep before my kid comes home for three weeks, what passes for a summer vacation for a full time full year grad student.

[stevenfrisch]

Nice of you to point out that I am fat Gregory...I never would have noticed without your reminder. You must be pretty fat too if someone mistook you for me. The difference is that I could always lose weight, you sir will wake up in the morning and still be just as stupid and hypocritical.

I am quite happy helping to represent the more than 1000 Sierra Nevada businesses over the last two years we have saved more than $1.5 million per year, and the 4000 people per month who regularly use our resources or communicate with us about business issues in the Sierra Nevada, or pulling together more than a hundred businesses and organizations two months ago to get Sierra Nevada needs included in the state's economic development planning.

I guess my question is if you are not working now are you collecting unemployment? have you collected unemployment in the last 4 years? are you collecting social security? Or are you on a fat pension from the very gubmint you decry like George?

If I weren't a garbage man I would be a clerk, or a chef, or a gas station attendant, or any of a myriad of other things I could be, and I would do it well. I hear you are virtually un-employable because your attitude sucks. Some things will never change.

[Ben Emery]

Steve,
You know how the saying goes. Those who can do, and those who can't spend all day telling others how they are superior and experts in every aspect of life, including personal lives of others on blogs.