01 April 2013

How do we combat the progressive's biggest enemy - "short-termism"

A lot of businesses think that planning 5 years ahead is 'long term' planning. The electoral cycle means political parties mainly get credit (or blame) for the here & now regardless of who is actually responsible. So how can we get fiscal responsibility, visionary environmental & social engineering and infrastructure spending whose main fruits may be decades or even centuries away?

Fortunately one solution is more democracy. We need a more informed electorate & less biased media that explains things in more detail & has less sensationalist "black & white" narratives that suit a proprietor's particular political taste/ business interest (usually right wing). This can only be done by opening up the monopolistic control of the media to many more sources,  imposing strict limits on donations to political parties & ensuring every voter has more direct input to parties.

A more proportional electoral system means more voting age adults are represented in parliament (probably doubling support needed to win majority of seats from 20% to 40% of electorate).

Harvard studies -  - have shown this has a direct relationship with inequality by giving more power to the median voter & lessening electoral power of the wealthy.

More equal societies spend more wisely on infrastructure like housing, universal healthcare, public transport, utilities etc & are more fiscally responsible. There is more pressure for full employment; so more is spent on training & education, and they curb more socially regressive aspects of companies who are short-termist. Long term planning is easier when (proportional) coalition government is fine tuned at each election rather than abrupt swings from one ideology to another.

Job done!

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