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Comment by mtgx | Hacker News Reader

I don't know why EU seems to have so much more common sense for issues like these than US, but whatever they are doing is working, and I love it. Maybe US needs to model its democratic system more after EU.

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Because most EU countries have proportional representation, which means geographically diffuse and demographically aligned ideologies, like the green party in the 70-80s, and the pirate party in the 2000s, can get off the ground easily.

Actually, to be precise, it is because elections to the European parliament use a form of proportional representation.

For example, UK elections do not use PR, but elections to the European Parliament in the UK do.

Theory: The US gutted its educational system some generations ago, and the results are now showing on a policy level.

As George Carlin once said: "When you have a selfish, ignorant public, you get selfish, ignorant leaders."

Myths and legends supported literally by a joke. American educational system is no worse than Western European[1], and definitely better when it comes to higher education[2].

[1] http://super-economy.blogspot.com/2010/12/amazing-truth-abou... [2] pretty much any ranking will do

[2] Better for just the lucky few who can get to the top universities.

Literally anyone can get to a top university if they work hard enough

Certainly, but that doesn't have terribly much to do with what you can say about the population at large.

True, but true everywhere. There is simply no bottom for quality of higher education, or just education.

Other than the reasons already pointed out, money plays a huge role in elections in the U.S.A. Without large influx of money, a politician can not run an effective campaign - hence corporations have a huge leverage. To put it bluntly: corruption is rife in the U.S. but it is "hidden" as money does not (always) go directly to a politician's pocket, but it is diverted to his/her campaign. What the U.S.A. needs is to revamp its law and limit contributions to small amounts per person - including corporate persons - and reverse the Citizens United ruling through a constitutional amendment.

Money in politics is certainly an issue, but I think it pales in comparison to our lack of proportional representation in Congress. Many communities are now distributed across the country, which can effectively deprive them of representation unless they have a critical mass in at least one place (I assume Silicon Valley is a good example).

I don't know how much this factors in but Visa is a US multinational. How much interests do EU countries have in playing along with Visa?

Cynical hypothesis: the EU gains from making it easier for Americans to leak American secrets.

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