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Comment by voakbasda | Hacker News Reader

We started a revolution in this country over tax on tea. Pinching the lower class like this might not end well for the government in the current socioeconomic climate. Personally, I look forward to the revolution.

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>We started a revolution in this country over tax on tea.

That is not the full story. "American colonists objected to being taxed by the Parliament of Great Britain, a body in which they had no direct representation. "[0][emphasis added] It was taxation without representation that was the issue.

Today in America, we have a similar issue for example with the citizens of California, who are woefully underpresented in Congress and the electoral college (because they only get the same two Senators as Wyoming despite having something like 60 times the population).

[0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Revolution

Why did you intentionally omit the house of representatives where the number of seats is tied to population? The Senate's entire purpose is a balance of power between small states and larger ones where the people are represented in the house. Your post feels ignorant or deceitful.

It is also interesting that US senators used to be selected by each state legislature as opposed to by popular election because their original purpose was to represent the state as a sovereign entity as opposed to the people directly.

>citizens of California, who are woefully underpresented in Congress

You don't know that Congress includes the House of Representatives? I did not "intentionally omit" anything. And I also mentioned the electoral college, which you "intentionally omitted".

Except you did. You framed it as in totally congress is unbalanced because of the senate. To someone not from the US that distinction isn’t a material one and you used that to make it seem that there is no population balancing mechanism. So while you may not believe you were intentionally dishonest, it comes off that way to everyone else.

>congress is unbalanced because of the senate

Yes, that is exactly correct. Not only can laws only pass with the approval of both houses (they each have veto power over the other), but the Senate has extra privileges such as judicial and cabinet appointment approvals that do not allow direct representation. And stupid rules like the filibuster just amplify the effect.

Ironic, isn't it, that while the American revolutionaries did not like taxation with representation, they deliberately created a system which, with the passage of the 16th amendment, enables just that.

Your view, deceitfully presented, is flawed and obtusly (seemingly purposely) ignores every component of the legislative branch in favor of your narrative. Your view of the filibuster is subjective and your stated irony is just a blatent falsehood crafted to sensationally push your agenda's daft poetic imaging.

I stand by my criticism of your post.

>Today in America, we have a similar issue for example with the citizens of California who are woefully underrepresented in Congress and the electoral college.

Oh please. California has the most seats in the House of Representatives, the most electoral college votes, and the 2 senators per state was purposely done so that large states like California couldn't bully smaller states through their sheer size. Claiming that California is "woefully underrepresented" is just absurd and purposely ignorant.

Yes, and now the majority of the country is bullied by the minority. Because that's better somehow?

That was the agreement required to get the little states to join the union.

>> Yes, and now the majority of the country is bullied by the minority.

Can you provide a couple of examples of this?

Best example is how representation in the federal government is diluted for the more populous states, States with more people have proportionally less say in the house than less populous states. If I live in California, my house representative represents more people than say montana

So have them propose legislation where they get rid of states and just have single government. Could even move all of the decision making in this single body. And for best democracy have all candidates in single pool and top vote winners get elected. Perfect and fair democracy where everyone has equal vote.

Technically you could even get rid of all elected members and just run some blockchain or something and vote for laws that way...

Modified Tendermint consensus where each state is a validator

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