</rant> </bait> [This is neither intended a rant nor a bait, but a genuine idea.]
When you are buying a car, seems there's always someone in your group of friends who is known as the most mechanically-minded, car-loving freak.
When going overseas, you can quickly harness the six-degrees-of-separation tactic to find advice/tips for the cities you're visiting.
Could the self-organising system of local networks produce a better voting system? Let's see:
I've always insisted we should vote for policies more than we vote for people. Otherwise we end up with rock stars and actors as leaders.
So: Votes are categorised into general disciplines (economy, health, education, manufacturing, justice, natural resources, etc).
Your votes are then (SOMEHOW????) weighted by a system of scoring amongst your peers.
'Oh, Jim spent that 3 weeks in hospital last year -- he'll know better than me if those nurses are over/underworked.'
'Tim says he cares about trees, but he never says what should be done about it. I'll weight-up Susan, since she was the one who asked the local council to examine her ideas on funding some green areas among the developments.'
?-- not_only_but_also, Oct 19 2004 Halfbakery: real-time forest voting http://www.halfbake...e_20forest_20votingMy (surprisingly similar) attempt at attacking this problem: If you think someone near you is competent in an area, give them your vote. [jutta, Oct 19 2004] Are rock stars and actors inherently bad choices for leaders?-- bristolz, Oct 19 2004 They make great leaders, but they tend to rely on auto-cues too much. :)-- not_only_but_also, Oct 19 2004 So every appointed position that oversees these issues would become a vote?
Destined to become abused by the parties, unfortunately.-- RayfordSteele, Oct 23 2004 I agree, way too open to abuse. Sorry, gonna have to bone this despite an admirable concept. Human nature will get you every time.-- harderthanjesus, Oct 23 2004 I agree with [RS] and [htj] on this one.
By the way, did you hear about the guy who was selling his vote for the upcoming Presidential election on e-bay for $25? The sucker's likely to be thrown in jail for at least a year for the misdemeanor.-- Machiavelli, Oct 23 2004 random, halfbakery