November 5, 2003
NOT SO FAST GRANNY:
Germany considers giving kids the vote: MPs want voting right for children to counter-balance a fast ageing electorate that is resisting cuts to welfare benefits (Straits Times, 11/06/03)
The one-man-one-vote system could be modified in Germany to give parents an additional vote for their children if some leading German MPs have their way.The proposal to give parents a proxy vote for their children to counter the rising power of the elderly lobby is similar to an idea mooted by Singapore's Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew in the early 1990s, but which was never taken up.
Concerned that politicians would be increasingly beholden to the demands of the rapidly swelling ranks of the retired, some Germans have taken the idea of universal suffrage to its logical conclusion.
They want children to have the right to vote to counter-balance the fast ageing electorate that is resisting cuts to generous benefits.
Forty-seven MPs are supporting a cross-party motion that calls for the right to vote from birth.
The motion asks the government to amend the Constitution so that parents get a proxy vote for each child under 18.
Pull up an easy chair and start popping the corn, 'cause when young Turks vote to cut off aged Germans retirement checks it'll make Kosovo look like a garden party. Posted by Orrin Judd at November 5, 2003 6:44 PM
"Pull up an easy chair and start popping the corn, 'cause when young Turks vote to cut off aged Germans retirement checks it'll make Kosovo look like a garden party."
Oh yeah, but once those Euro-types start massacring each other, won't we just have to bail 'em out again? Can't we just sit the next European civil war out?
Posted by: Governor Breck at November 5, 2003 7:09 PMGovernor:
No, but let it be a fault that is to our credit.
Posted by: Buttercup at November 5, 2003 7:54 PMButtercup - But we may be occupied elsewhere. We've left Rwanda and Congo alone, and the French nukes argue we should leave Europe even more alone.
Posted by: pj at November 5, 2003 8:35 PMIs there a possibility that this is just a wily way of trying to get Germans to actually reproduce?
Posted by: Timothy at November 5, 2003 8:57 PMWhat's to prevent the parents who are proxies to vote to keep the bennies? Especially for young children??
COWARDS! Don't want to do the job they were paid to do.
Posted by: Sandy P. at November 5, 2003 9:38 PMSeems like a pretty transparent attempt to keep the current anti-US administration in power (now that the economy's off the rails and everything else seems to have been tried).
Posted by: Barry Meislin at November 6, 2003 1:50 AMSandy:
Actually, in the mid-90s, the Germans passed some of the retirement age-raising, benefit cutting legislation that the French have been unable to do, and that the US Congress has refused to do.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at November 6, 2003 8:17 AMMichael:
The exact opposite is true: we raised retirement age--the Germans haven't:
"Although Mr Schroeder shied away from proposals to raise the pension age to 67 from 65, he announced a pensions freeze for next year, prompting organisations representing the retired to threaten to punish his centre-left government in 2006."
Posted by: oj at November 6, 2003 8:59 AMI assume your refernce to young Turks is to the fact that the German work force will be mostly muslim and that the conflict in Europe will not just be young vs old but Chrisitian vs muslim.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at November 6, 2003 12:31 PMoj:
I am apparently mistaken about the Germans, but the reason that I discounted US "reforms" is because they are window dressing, and will not effect the coming crisis.
Now, raising the retirement age to 68, for those born in 1954, and increasing it incrementally, to a retirement age of 72, for those born in 1964, would be helpful.
Or, we could just privatize it.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at November 6, 2003 1:37 PMJust what the West has benefited from so many times--a stronger political voice for German youth.
Posted by: Peter B at November 6, 2003 3:14 PMMichael:
Agreed, but that requires 60 GOP seats in the Senate.
Posted by: oj at November 6, 2003 5:38 PMThe '97 German budget increased pension contributions, decreased benefits, and, effective in '00, raised the female retirement age from 60 to 65.
Peter B:
Funny.
Posted by: Michael Herdegen at November 6, 2003 5:57 PM