Without going into my own political leanings, I've always felt that the people who put themselves up for election are the ones I'd least like to have any power. But they do a job I wouldn't, so I propose a system whereby once elected, they have to fulfill a forfeit, as a means of ensuring that they want that power for the right reasons.

Forfeits could be democratically decided, but would also need to be something that the individual politician would find somewhat harrowing. Off the top of my head, I'd suggest something like sitting advanced algebra nightclasses, doing a weekly bungee jump, eating 2 dozen hard boiled eggs at one sitting, learning Japanese, that sort of thing.

Thus, we would ensure we were governed by people who were truly driven by altruism and their higher ideals, and didn't get into office because they were lying, power-hungry bastards.

And it'd all be on live TV...
-- saker, May 01 2003

Being voted out of their comfy lifestyles seems like a fair enough forfeit in a democracy, but somehow it never seems to happen.
-- DrCurry, May 01 2003


On the other hand you could be selecting people who enjoy exhibitionist masochism
-- peter2, May 01 2003


Well, [Peter2], if they show signs of enjoying it, that's when we throw 'em to the lions...
-- saker, May 01 2003


..... oh nice to know you have a contingency plan
-- peter2, May 01 2003


I agree: "people who put themselves up for election are the ones I'd least like to have any power." We need to find some way of promoting good politicians, and discouraging bad politicians. I think politicians should have to wear a lie detector. Perhaps a panel of retired judges would approve 3 questions from the media that the judges feel are relevant. The have new lie detectors that use cat scans, but politicians are pretty busy people, and I don't know if they could make weekly stops to the hospital for that.

If the equipment isn't too expensive, maybe they could just set it up in their office, so it could go quick. Or maybe the news outlet that had the rights to air the test/results would have to purchase it.

I did not mean to change the subject to my idea, but I’m very self-centered that way. Um I agree: "people who put themselves up for election are the ones I'd least like to have any power." I don't know what else to say. I agree with your goal. I don't think your idea is fully developed yet, so [+] for me.
-- myclob, Mar 19 2005


It's fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging) that can be used for lie detection, not X-ray CT (computed [not necessarily axial anymore] tomography). I have too little experience with cats to know if they can detect lies. [8th]?

MRI machines are extremely large, power-hungry, and expensive.

[+] for the idea. I don't know how effective it would be, but it sounds like it would at least be an interesting thing to try.
-- notexactly, Feb 08 2019



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