[estearum]

> But at that point you’re just in an argument over which public services are most important to whom.

Would be an interesting exercise to poll the public. We could probably break the country up into a bunch of districts, then have them vote to elect representatives to get together in some special location and negotiate how taxpayer dollars are spent.

They could put something together like "a budget" and then that money gets actually committed directly to the purposes that our elected representatives negotiated about.

Would definitely be an interesting exercise to go through one day!

[sbseitz]

Would be amazing if the reps actually did what we wanted instead of what they are paid by outside entities to do. We should try that!

[criddell]

What do you mean by outside entities? Foreign governments?

[simonw]

Their donors. In the USA members of congress spend an embarrassingly large amount of their time on the phone to their donors ensuring they are happy enough to fund their next run.

January 2013: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/call-time-congressional-fundr...

> A PowerPoint presentation to incoming freshmen by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, obtained by The Huffington Post, lays out the dreary existence awaiting these new back-benchers. The daily schedule prescribed by the Democratic leadership contemplates a nine or 10-hour day while in Washington. Of that, four hours are to be spent in "call time" and another hour is blocked off for "strategic outreach," which includes fundraisers and press work.

April 2016: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/60-minutes-are-members-of-congr...

> Rep. Rick Nolan: Well, both parties have told newly elected members of the Congress that they should spend 30 hours a week in the Republican and Democratic call centers across the street from the Congress, dialing for dollars.

[estearum]

Agreed that money should be virtually eliminated from the system. That said, people actually tend to be pretty satisfied with their representatives. It's the other Congresspeople who suck.

[kQq9oHeAz6wLLS]

Hard disagree, my rep is an idiot

[estearum]

Data be damned then! Good point.

[Loughla]

I bet you'll find that more people don't approve of what their representative is doing than do approve.

Low voter turnout allows for bullshit to slip through the cracks by targeting very small blocs of voters.

I genuinely believe that most problems in government would be fixed if voluntary voter turnout was around 99%, and that low rates, especially during midterms, is the largest threat to democracy in the United States as we know it to date.

[mlrtime]

I bet you most voter (not all population) couldn't name their representitive or district if their life depended on it.

So if you poll these people it will just be a proxy question of "Do you approve of your government".

[svachalek]

What data? I've never seen data showing people approve of their Congressperson. Especially if that person is a Democrat.

[cwmoore]

Certainly could be more transparent and more equitably shared. Life is tough for people, corporate entities have interests but never actual pain.

[wat10000]

This snide response would be a lot better if climate.gov had actually been taken down by those representatives you mention, rather than illegally destroyed by one man.

[estearum]

No no, the snide response works because this shutdown was a violation of aforementioned system. Downstream discussions on “oh hurrr ummm how do we decide what’s worth spending money on?!” are irrelevant. We already have a system to do that, and that system has decided to fund climate.gov

[wat10000]

Clearly not, or it would be funded. The part of the system that’s supposed to decide decided to fund it. Then another part illegally blocked that and suffered no consequences.

[UncleMeat]

Gerrymandering means that the house is a skewed representation of the people. The senate is a skewed representation of the people in its intentional structure.

Further, the Trump administration is happily destroying things that are funded by the lawfully passed budgets.

[bborud]

You are skipping a few layers here. Like those who know stuff like «crumbling asbestos air ducts in schools may be a bad idea».

Why do so many grown-ups fail civics 101 so blatantly?

[bee_rider]

They are doing the gag where they just describe representative democracy like it is a novel idea.

Practically we also need expert organizations and agencies to help advise the representative and implement their ideas, but I wouldn’t describe glossing over that sort of detail as “failing civics 101.”

[estearum]

I can't understand what you're trying to say.