It looks Like Layoff Season Is Starting

[paperburn1]

I agree, Who cares who STARTED it?
What we need is how to stop it.
And that is by paying attention to the political process and voting.
Most people ignore the local elections and that is where our Washington elite come from. Vet and check the local commissioners and mayors and in about 20 years we will see vast improvements. Yes, it will take at least that long before we see results, after all we did not get into this position over night so it will take this long to correct it.
Per example in the last election our new mayor won by 12 votes 448-460. In a town or 10 000 voters we barely managed a 10 percent turnout. Only one out of ten bothered to spend ten minutes to vote. And sadly this is the norm
U.S., about 60% of the voting eligible population votes during presidential election years, and about 40% votes during midterm elections.
This is a very interesting piece on voter turn out.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voter_turnout

[hanelyp]

We'd get results a lot faster than 20 years if voters would account the costs and side effects of what available candidates are promising. But a lot of voters don't directly see those costs (taxes and mandates) hitting them, while they do see the promised benefits. So we get tyranny of the majority stealing from the rest, and other short sighted policies.

Which is not to dismiss the importance of local elections. I look at the nearby city of Sacramento, headed by a mayor with a basketball for a brain, and I see another major city on the road to insolvency.

[KitemanSA]

How do we stop it? Institute Full Option Voting.

[paperburn1]

How do we stop it? Institute Full Option Voting.

YES. That way the most people will be happy with the choice of candidate. I like The single transferable vote (STV) is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through ranked voting in multi-seat constituencies (voting districts).[1] Under STV, an elector (voter) has a single vote that is initially allocated to their most preferred candidate and, as the count proceeds and candidates are either elected or eliminated, is transferred to other candidates according to the voter's stated preferences, in proportion to any surplus or discarded votes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8XOZJkozfI

[KitemanSA]

How do we stop it? Institute Full Option Voting.

YES. That way the most people will be happy with the choice of candidate. I like The single transferable vote (STV) is a voting system designed to achieve proportional representation through ranked voting in multi-seat constituencies (voting districts).[1] Under STV, an elector (voter) has a single vote that is initially allocated to their most preferred candidate and, as the count proceeds and candidates are either elected or eliminated, is transferred to other candidates according to the voter's stated preferences, in proportion to any surplus or discarded votes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l8XOZJkozfI

Well, even STV can be converted into Full Option with relative ease. But STV alone suffers from the same failing as any other half option voting system. You can STILL only choose between voting FOR evil or NOT voting. I prefer full option which gives you the choice between voting YES or voting NO.

[hanelyp]

How is single transferable vote where you exhaustively specify order of preference mathematically different in outcome if you can specify that your vote is against a rats in order?

[KitemanSA]

How is single transferable vote where you exhaustively specify order of preference mathematically different in outcome if you can specify that your vote is against a rats in order?

If nothing else, it sends a compltely different message.

With Full Option STV, you rank the ones you LIKE in order of preference and when you run out of likes, you select the ONE you dislike most. Or, you can go immediately to the "against" if that is your strongest choice. But only one "against" because that will CERTAINLY be counted.

[paperburn1]

But I think we both agree, what we have is broken and needs to be replaced as soon as possible.
And with full option it makes no sense not to vote because anything you do helps the process.
But how does one change the voting rules, Do we go to a true democracy or stay a republic with the electoral collage intact.

[paperburn1]

Its is official. were in financial trouble.
The basics think that keeps a capitalist society stable in a large middle class.
The US no longer has that.
http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world ... 18655.html
The nation's middle class, long a pillar of the U.S. economy and foundation of the American dream, has shrunk to the point where it no longer constitutes the majority of the adult population, according to a new major study.

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/nation-world ... rylink=cpy
And just a little more icing on the cake http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-e ... OP20151210
five reports all going down.