[martinraag]

I'm incredulous about the average person having enough knowledge about the possible pros and cons of these choices. Nor should they - that's what representative democracy is for. A popular referendum for a complex issue like this, is in my opinion, a very bad idea.

[stunt]

Yes! Brexit is the best example for it. Not judging about It, but clearly non off the politicians that proposed Brexit did a basic research or investigation for such a huge change and about how it should work and what is the impact. Which means they had a different goal.

You should make sure you have the right people in the system to make the right decisions.

Manipulating majority is not hard. And wrong politicians even from outside the system will do it just for the sake of taking power and their own interests.

[repolfx]

That's not the case. Many of the politicians who campaigned for Brexit have a very deep understanding and had been campaigning for it for large parts of their adult lives.

Indeed, so far their predictions appear to have been more accurate than those of the so-called "experts". For instance "experts" claimed voting to leave would destroy 500,000 to 800,000 jobs. The Brexit campaigners said it wouldn't. The experts were wrong.

Be very wary of assuming that:

a) The people claiming to be experts on a topic are experts

b) Experts on a particular topic exist at all

c) Experts will make better decisions than the people in aggregate

There are all sorts of reasons to doubt all three of these propositions.