Hi all,
I've been following discussions on here for a while. I haven't posted too much. Anytime anything in relation to tax/charges/government come up for discussion come up I see a plethora of:
1) All politicians are evil.If they come to my door looking for a vote, I'm gonna batter them.
2) It wasn't my fault. I never got anything from the "celtic tiger" so why should I pay.
3) They are trying to force us to pay to cover the gambling (banking) debts of some mysterious elite. If we refused to pay these debts, we'd be fine.
4) All services that I use should be free. Ones that I don't use are obviously being used by the rich people. They should pay for them.
5) The public sector/teacher/guards are overpaid/bloated/inefficient. They should be improved, yet there should be no cutbacks
6) Go back to the punt. Devalue it and then we'd all be rich again. (particularly idiotic in my opinion)
7) "Bankers" are evil. (However I don't quite understand who "Bankers" are or how many of them there are. But from reading the posts here, one would get the impression that if we got rid of them, or killed them, we'd be back to the happy days again.)
The thing about the constant attacking of politicians really annoys me. These people may be incompetant, but it's the voters who put them in. It is probably the vicious attitude of the general rabble that stop more competent people from standing. I reckon that most of them are trying to do at least some good. Some probably like the "being in charge" or "being in the limelight" aspect, but most probably still are trying to do what they think is right within their constraints.
I have no politican affiliation of any sort. I'd categorise myself as slightly left of centre as regards social issues, but slightly right of centre as regards fiscal and financial things. I'd try to be practical about things but at the same time you also have to try to help the people who fall between the cracks. But you should try to do that without letting lazy people take advantage. You should encourage and reward people that work hard without giving them too much power. Obviosly everyone thinks they work hard, but I honestly know a lot of people who work harder than me, and I know a lot who try less than me.
So basically, if you were put in charge for a week and given the opportunity to make any changes you wanted, what would you do? Only intelligent and reasonable answers please. None of this "
I'd just have to tell Merkel and the Troika to f***k off and we'd all be grand then" or "I'd just make the rich/bankers/politicians pay their share of tax and then the rest of us would be fine". i.e you have to think more than one step into the future!
For example, I recall listening to the Gerry Adams interview where he claimed he'd take unilateral action against the Troika. The extreme left wing harp on about "x amount of billions owned by the top 5%" but a large proportion of that is probably not liquid. It might be in the form of property or business. To monetise it, it would have to be sold to someone else. Eventually it would need to be sold to the outsiders to bring money into the country. So when I hear SF and extreme left saying stuff like this, the logical extension and final step in such a process is not "redistribute wealth to the poor" (a la Zimbabwean style where you just destroy the country... but at least there are no more wealthy.....but everyone is far far poorer) but more of a "sieze their assets and sell the countryto outsiders:" (Brits?) bit by bit. As I said, I'm fiscally conservative and those people are entitled to their opinions, but they should spell out the consequences, or expected consequences, of those decisions.
Would I want to be a politician? - No. Because even though I would want to be fair and I would honestly try my best, and with good intentions, to serve the people, I know that there would be anonymous people on message boards calling me stupid or threatening what they would do to me if I landed at their door. Because it is impossible to have an efficient and fully functioning system where everyone is happy unless you are just building up problems for the person coming after you to sort. I think people should have more repect for the people who do stand for election and try to make difficult choices. It is easy to shout and pontificate when you are an independent because you never have to actually do what you propose, and thus never have to deal with the consequences.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0YOh-rpvjYg
