Teen Tries to sell Vote...

[Gribble]

[url]http://news.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/07/04/162209&from=rss[/url]

This kid tried to sell his vote on e-bay. And now he's been arrested and is facing felony charges. What rubbish.

There's fraud and then there's stupidity. This is clearly a case of the latter, but it's being treated just as seriously as the former. You know what zero tolerance translates to? Zero competence. Apparently in the US we can't see the difference between some punk teenager trying to be clever and a politician buying out votes.

(As if votes aren't bought and sold wholesale, anyway...)

[Mish]

I think if voting is so sacred in US then it should be made compulsory like in Australia

[vashti]

I think voting is so sacred, it should be restricted to people with intelligence.

[Mish]

And who will restrict and decide who are people with intelligence and who are not?

[vashti]

Some objective standard... IQ testing, or whatever.

[Junket]

I'm still voting for Ron Paul.

[DoesntMatter]

We need a president like James Polk or Teddy Roosevelt

[anachronistic]

I think we should get rid of the president and just vote the decisions he makes. Send diplomats out for foreign policy.

[Illusional]

haha find it more funny that they are trying to make this kid sound like a scapegoat for all the wrong that has been done. our government is stupid anyways.

raverboy

[Mish]

Some objective standard... IQ testing, or whatever.

You mean like anyone with IQ say below 120 should not be allowed to vote? Who will have the authority to police it? Who will have the authority to write the tests?

[1averagejoe]

I think voting is so sacred, it should be restricted to people with intelligence.

Kind of like presidents, ha?

[Gribble]

I think you should require an IQ above 140. That would be the perfect cutoff point. Let's only let the top .5% of the population vote.

[Mish]

Then times can really be perfect just like in Middle Ages under Monarchy

[Gribble]

I always thought it would be an interesting social experiment to see what would happen if a country were ruled by an oligarchy composed of sociologists, philosophers, psychologists, astronomers, mathematicians, etc. A country not ruled by whoever happens to be the most charming or eloquent, but a country ruled by the most well-educated and thoughtful.

[vashti]

There would need to be some sort of test concocted to ensure those eligible to vote had common sense. Lots of highly intelligent people are noticeably lacking in that area.