On Second Thought


Tom Perkins, the super rich guy who thinks that there is a Kristallnacht threat to his fellow zillionaires, may be nuts, but you have to admit that he is doing his part to make the idea more attractive - he now thinks that rich people should get more votes.

Matthew Yglesias, also the free market capitalist, thinks it might be a good idea to let the rich buy votes on the open market. 

If you cut out the middle man and just let the Koch brothers offer to buy votes on an open market then at least some money would flow to poor people. Right now we know that legislators completely ignore the views of low-income people when deciding how to vote on issues and mostly just do what rich people want. Letting people buy and sell votes would thus redistribute some income without necessarily changing policy dynamics very much.
I'm afraid I don't think that's such a good idea.  The Roman Republic ended a bit like that: the rich bought votes like crazy and they got their money back with great interest from the public treasury.

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