This morning at ten past eight exactly 51 weeks ago my cousin Colin lost his life. He was killed on his way to work, his first “real” job after finishing his Mech Eng degree at UL. The red scrap metal you see below is the wreckage which his crushed body was cut from.

He was hit by another young bloke who just happened to be in a rush and made a tragic mistake. A mistake which turned Colin into a statistic and has brought untold grief upon our family and his friends.

Since then my uncle has been campaigning to have a national day of remembrance for all those killed on our roads. In the coming weeks I hope to launch a web site to help bring attention to the campaign. As part of the web site intiative we will probably run some kind of email campaign or online petition. I’d be grateful to anyone who would support us by adding there name or email address when the time comes.

In the mean time if you get the opportunity today ring someone who you haven’t rung in a while just to say hello, make a special effort to meet up with a friend or family member. This is a campaign to remember those who are already lost, to help those left  behind with only photographs and memories.

And by the way if you are driving today… slow the fuck down… being dead is a lot less convenient than being late.

Recently I read an article in the Economist about a book called ‘The Myth of the Rational Voter’ by one Bryan Caplan.

Essentially the book sets out that the American voting system doesn’t work because of the fact that, inevitably, when it comes to politics most of us are by and large ignorant about the details of an awful lot of it.

Many ‘political scientists’ feel that the wisdom of crowds wins out when the candidate who wins the majority of informed votes wins the election.

However, Caplan reckons that this is knocked of course by the fact that voters by and large have biases that skew the vote and make us vote for policies that, in his view, actually make us worse off. Voters have an anti market bias, an anti foreign bias, a bias toward employment rather than production and a general bias toward pessimism (thinking the economy is worse off than it is for example).

Caplan believes that these biases, which are not in his view based on sound fact, result in voting trends which are ultimately damaging to government and country.

The article doesn’t go into detail on Caplan’s suggestions to address the issues:

To curb the majority’s tendency to impose its economic ignorance on everyone else, he suggests we rely less on government and more on private choice. Industries do better when deregulated. Religions thrive when disestablished. Market failures should be tackled, of course, but always with an eye for the unintended consequences of regulation. Mr Caplan is better at diagnosis than prescription.

The article was certainly thought provoking, though I’m not convinced from the article that I’d agree with Caplan on a lot of fronts… I’d be curious to read more, particularly in terms of what he suggests we do about it. I’d certainly be quite uncomfortable with what Dave has (mischievously?) opened for discussion.

The Myth of the Rational Voter is available on Amazon.co.uk

So let the tax payers decide.

Myself and Frank had an interesting conversation last week about how the current system of one man - one vote aint really working. Basically we the people don’t seem to pay enough attention to who we vote for. Some of us vote for all the wrong reasons. Some people don’t even bother their back sides to vote, yet reserve the right to avail of the benefits the state (sorry the tax payers) provide… free first, second and third level education, roads, social welfare, subsidised public transport, health care etc etc

I’ve seen the other side, politicians pandering to those who come looking for favors… my daughter and her baby needs a house, I want a medical card -even though I’m not entitled to it! So people who don’t deserve the support of the state (sorry the tax payer) are getting it and those seeking office are facilitating this misallocation of funds in order to get elected.

So the system is broken. I’ve got a suggestion to fix it. One that is fair on those who deserve fairness most of all… those footing the bill.

My suggestion is a simple one. It’s still one man - one vote but the votes are weighted. Weighted based on the amount of personal tax paid by the individual in the 12 months leading up to the election. The beauty of the plan is that those who only take from the system won’t get to decide how the money they didn’t work hard to earn is spent. If the mega rich want to have a say they will have to start paying a bit of tax too!!!

It’s a sort of capitalist socialism where the PAYE worker, the back bone of the economy, rules supreme.

I await your questions and comments!

Thanks to Green Ink and Twenty Major for posting these videos. My God. This is Ireland.

My friend Eagle Eye Jeremy sent me this gem he spotted on breakingnews.ie, it seems Fianna Fail’s Pat Carey will be having a party to celebrate his recent appointment.