Originally the question was “Is my right to vote worth the taxes I’m paying?” Then I asked myself if it was worth a cup of coffee. Some presidential elections have been decided by a few hundred votes in certain states. In Massachusetts, my vote has never even been close to deciding an election. Nobody in office anywhere was helped by my vote.
Perhaps in the grand scheme of things democracy contributes something, but it’s hard to see. The best ‘democracy’ to me would be one where I had the choice of where to pay my taxes. Even a ‘democracy’ where I moved to another state to enjoy their government would be preferable to this out of control government that we can’t effect or cause intelligent change.
A lottocracy where all the college graduates were put into a pool from which representatives were randomly selected would be infinitely better. The over forty crowd has a lot to contribute, especially if literate, diversified and intelligent.
The other necessary reform to democracy is to separate the vote from benefits. Nobody should vote for anything that brings government money to themselves or their cronies.
Current democracies aren’t worth a cup of coffee. Democracies are better than dictatorships, which usually have negative worth, but aren’t worth a cappuccino to most of us.
In a democracy with free speech, the people tend to follow the findings of the media. The media can influence elections. The media and those that control or own the media are the real voters of significance.