[extropy-chat] late response to Dan/Technotranscendence

[Mike Lorrey]

--- Harvey Newstrom <mail at harveynewstrom.com> wrote:
> 
> The founding father's criteria for voting:
> - Males could vote, females couldn't
> - Whites could vote, blacks and natives couldn't
> - Land or estate owners could vote, their tenets, employees and poor
> people
> could not
> 
> I don't see that rich white males select for intelligence or
> competence very
> well.  I am glad the right to vote was expanded as broadly as
> possible.

Yes, expanded at a time when the US had acheived nearly universal
literacy, so every citizen was typically capable of making informed
voting decisions.

Now, the reason landowners were the voters then was that the whole tax
system was property based. The states themselves funded the federal
government proportionately based on the acrage of each state. "No
taxation without representation" = "No representation without taxation".

=====
Mike Lorrey
"Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils."
                                       - Gen. John Stark
"Fascists are objectively pro-pacifist..."
                                       - Mike Lorrey
Do not label me, I am an ism of one...
Sado-Mikeyism: http://mikeysoft.zblogger.com

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