Its not an unprecedented idea. After all, when the country was founded, only landowning males got to vote. That said, saying it in 2014 is some variation of the old "democracy is three wolves and lamb voting on what to have for dinner." Its based on the fallacious belief that without civil society, people like Perkins would be at the top of the heap without any non-taxpayers to drag them down.<p>Some people may not pay taxes, but their buy in to the system nonetheless keeps our natural rulers at bay. Those natural rulers are not people like Perkins. Nerds with a talent for running financial models. Our natural rulers are those talented at leading people in the exercise of violence. Warlords, barons and earls of yore. Democracy is a bargain where the people acting collectively protect people like Perkins from the warlords that would otherwise make them their bitches.
There is some logic to this. I think it was Plato who commented that a democracy was doomed once its citizens realised they could vote themselves largesse out of the treasury. Which is pretty much what is happening these days in every modern industrial democracy - government spending constantly increases and any suggestions of cutting spending are met by massive protests.<p>Example: in the UK media right now you will read many stories about the current government's "deep, savage cuts", and all the poor people who are suffering as a result of these cold, uncaring conservatives. But after all these cuts the UK is still running at a deficit.<p>Of course, Plato was an old fool who lived in the days before fiat money. Why raise taxes or cut spending when you can simply borrow more?
><i>Pressed for examples of how the rich were being demonized...</i><p>Really, CNN? You haven't noticed that for the past few years? Tom may be an idiot and an extremist... but don't play stupid about the war on wealth.
<a href="http://www.kqed.org/assets/pdf/education/digitalmedia/us-voting-rights-timeline.pdf" rel="nofollow">http://www.kqed.org/assets/pdf/education/digitalmedia/us-vot...</a><p>1776 - Only land owners can vote.<p>1789 - "George Washington elected president. Only 6% of the population can vote."
Nice he's buying into the stupid "people who don't pay income tax in our progressive tax scheme don't pay tax" narrative.<p>I don't like this idea, but it would be interesting if the tax we're talking about is sales tax. Everyone would get some votes and there would be financial incentives for millionaires to actually spend their money and juice the economy so that they could have more votes.
disgusting. Maybe we should just give all the power to the rishest individual and call them supreme emperor. If your going to throw democracy out the window you might as well do it right.
Tom Perkins of "Kristallnacht" fame now suggests that money is a democratic medium.<p>Let's not forget how in Nazi germany the Nazi party and Kristallnacht was sponsored proudly by IG Farben, VW, Bayer, Thyssen, and so forth, and that while the Nazi party in public denounced capitalism and socialism as well as rentiers, the marriage between industry and nazi party was what enabled them in large part in the first place.