Now here’s an approach to limiting the privilege of voting that I’m particularly fond of. You buy shares of stock in America, and on Election Day you vote those shares. Simple as that.
How do you buy shares? Glad you asked.
Two ways.
You get your first share simply by enrolling—by being an American citizen. You get subsequent shares by paying taxes. Easy as that.
That process has worked for corporate America for generations. The more you invest in a business, the more you have to say about how that business is run. The more shares you own, the greater your voice in electing the board of directors.
So why not develop a system whereby the more you pay in federal income taxes, the more say you have in electing America’s “board of directors”? One vote for being a citizen, then another vote for every $25,000 in income taxes you pay, averaged out over the previous four years. A citizen who averages $20,000 a year in income taxes gets one vote. A citizen who averages $100,000 a year in income taxes gets four votes.
And, yes, we can put a cap on it—say, five votes max—to keep Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, and Sean Hannity from running the whole show.
There you go, getting all puffed up again. Haven’t you given up on this “right to vote” stuff yet?
If, as Henry Ford said, “the business of America is business,” let’s cherry-pick some ideas from the business world as to how to run our government.
No businessman would grab some derelict living in a homeless shelter (no doubt supported by his business’s tax dollars and charitable contributions) and say, “Hey, pal! How’d you like to help me choose who runs my company?” If your average businessman can see the stupidity in an idea like that, why can’t we?
But Neal, you may be saying. What about my brother the screwup? Doesn’t he get to vote?
Sorry, folks, but that’s my bottom line: I don’t think stupid people should vote. The ones who are too irresponsible or ignorant to bother figuring out how our government works aren’t doing our system any good. And the ones who are living off the fat of the land, courtesy of the welfare system, have only one motivation: to keep the money flowing.
After all, you wouldn’t give your teenage son or daughter the opportunity to set family financial policy—to tell you where you can and cannot work, where you should make your investments, or what to do about retirement.
Why would you turn our country over to people you wouldn’t trust to clean out your gutters?