Warren Buffet suggests
CLICK to listen to the audio version of this Daily Paradox
In a recent interview on CNBC television Warren Buffet challenged the American people to take steps to force Congress to deal more realistically with the spiraling national debt. His remarks were specific to Congress. I paraphrase them below because they apply to politicians all over the world, not just in USA.
Warren Buffet suggests that the deficit would be speedily ended if sitting members of parliament became ineligible for election if the deficit exceeded 3% of Gross Domestic Product. He pointed out that the right of 18 year olds to vote took only 11 weeks to be ratified in USA because the people demanded it. Moreover, 7 of 27 amendments to the constitution took less than a year to become law – again, due to popular demand.
His suggestion is that politicians should serve as a matter of honour, not for money. To make this clear all benefits provided only for politicians and not for other citizens should be removed. The people, he points out, did not vote for them, only the politicians themselves did. Politicians should experience the same benefits and privileges as those they represent, and no more.
They should be subject to the same laws as everyone else. Their pay should not be voted by them but should rise by 3% or the amount by which the Consumer Price Index rises – whichever is the lower. Democracy, he concludes, involves citizen legislators, not career politicians.
Warren Buffet asked each of his listeners to write to twenty others encouraging them to help build a tsunami of correspondence to their representatives making these points. The Daily Paradox will never send a chain letter but I do think that Mr Buffet has a point. Unless the ordinary citizens are prepared to make the noise that democracy allows them to make nothing will be done. Despair about the futility of demanding attention from our legislators is not how great nations were born. It may be how they will die.
My commitment that The Daily Paradox will never be involved in a chain letter is absolute. However, let us not allow this rule to tyrannize us to the point of inaction http://www.terrificmentors.com/2011/10/the-tyranny-of-rules/. A gentle nudge would take little effort, cost nothing and just might produce some result? http://www.terrificmentors.com/2011/10/nudge-and-shove/
Cynicism is the response of the weak to a powerful idea – so obviously I fear no cynicism about these ideas from Daily Paradox readers.
May I take that as a ‘yes’?
Robyn Hammond Fearon
As an American who had the benefit of attending classes in citizenship during my secondary school years (a benefit that has been removed from many schools), I learned that the House of Representatives was originally designed to have short terms of service for the purposes of providing all citizens the chance to step away from their “normal lives” for awhile in order to “serve”. The idea was to broaden representation, but to limit “ownership of the position” by encouraging turnover. Along with a more realistic salary structure and performance review, term limits should be added to the list of revisions to the current status quo. Thanks for passing along important ideas!
johnbittleston
Thank you, Rpbyn, for a most useful addition to the Buffet suggestion. I also think that every society needs a Senate / House of Lords, non-elected but appointed on a sensible basis that avoids too much cronyism. It should not deal with day to day legislation but should concentrate on the impact of today’s decisions on tomorrow. If the House of Lords had had influence it might have contributed to averting some of the climate disasters we are seeing.