Yeah but if you think about it, at the local level isn’t that how you want your politicians to work? They experience something that bothers them, and instead of just grumbling about it they go into politics to get elected and change it?
I mean if our politicians worked that way (driven by a single personal desire and hence the relative percentage of votes reflects how much the population wants each desire to influence policy), that’d be quite the improvement!
No, politicians especially need to have enough awareness of the world around them to represent people that they are not.
People only understanding something once it happens to them personally is immature and closed-minded, and leads directly to where we are (in the US) with the highest bodies in the land being a bunch of puppets to money and influence.
It’s the Marie Antoinette effect. Even though the quote is likely apocryphal, the point behind it is that she was so unaware of the people’s level of starvation that she genuinely thought that eating brioche (“cake”) was a viable alternative for bread, which they did not have.
You do not want politicians like that.
Oh, people working 40 hours a week can’t afford rent and food? Why don’t they just eat less and get a second job?
They will likely never experience many of the problems that the general population does.
Yeah but if you think about it, at the local level isn’t that how you want your politicians to work? They experience something that bothers them, and instead of just grumbling about it they go into politics to get elected and change it?
I mean if our politicians worked that way (driven by a single personal desire and hence the relative percentage of votes reflects how much the population wants each desire to influence policy), that’d be quite the improvement!
No, politicians especially need to have enough awareness of the world around them to represent people that they are not.
People only understanding something once it happens to them personally is immature and closed-minded, and leads directly to where we are (in the US) with the highest bodies in the land being a bunch of puppets to money and influence.
What if they never experience it?
It’s the Marie Antoinette effect. Even though the quote is likely apocryphal, the point behind it is that she was so unaware of the people’s level of starvation that she genuinely thought that eating brioche (“cake”) was a viable alternative for bread, which they did not have.
You do not want politicians like that.
Oh, people working 40 hours a week can’t afford rent and food? Why don’t they just eat less and get a second job?
They will likely never experience many of the problems that the general population does.