Opinion: Large land owner's vote carry more weight than small land owner?

[tallyho8]

I think the average college student is probably a resident longer than most of my tenants in my rental house. My tenants usually stay a year or less then move out of town.

Besides, it doesn't matter what is fair, it only matters what will get the politician re-elected.

 

[ovrszd]

Besides, it doesn't matter what is fair, it only matters what will get the politician re-elected.

BAM!!!

 

[Country Geek]

I think the average college student is probably a resident longer than most of my tenants in my rental house. My tenants usually stay a year or less then move out of town.

You must be some kind of landlord to drive all your tenants out of town like that :shocked:

But seriously there is plenty of law and court cases around this. In 1984 when I was in college in your typical college town where students could easily outvote residents if they actually put effort into it, a student went to court and won the right to register to vote in town. Everyone was afraid the students would take over the town council, but of course it didn't happen, it never happens, college students aren't that organized as a group, or even that interested in local politics though they may talk a big game.

The four year stay of a typical college student in a college town isn't really that short when you consider how transient people can be. Unless you're going to say there has to be a multi-year residency requirement to register to vote, which you definitely can't get away with, you have to let them register.

 

[randy41]

Tourist fall under the same categorization with an albeit lower contribution margin than students. Do they get to vote? I used to live in Columbia, SC.....The home of USC.

While they may register to vote because they can demonstrate residence, they would more often than not fail to register their car in SC and therefore pay the taxes and insurance(Its high compared to the national average). Sounds like choosing the place where you want to pay taxes.

like the caymens?

 

[gsganzer]

Besides, it doesn't matter what is fair, it only matters what will get the politician re-elected.

Boy, you hit that on the head. A couple of years ago, the city annexed our neighborhood and multiple other areas. Before doing so, they had to have some public meetings according to state law. The first meeting was on a weekday, after 5pm and plenty of affected and pissed off residents showed up. Lo and behold, the next meeting was held in the middle of the day, when most residents were working and couldn't attend. On top of that, this all went down around the holidays, when most people were involved in other things.

The eventual annexation was voted on by city council members (who we never voted for, because we were outside city limits). Of course this was all timed perfectly so that during the next city election, we were unable to vote for any of the city council members (or against them), because we hadn't been incorporated into the city limits for the preceding 6 months. Politicians can be crafty.

 

[MossRoad]

Thread pruned. Please continue the discussion.

 

[smstonypoint]

Thread pruned. Please continue the discussion.

Dang.

I was getting ready to expound on price takers versus price seekers in agriculture.

Steve

 

[MossRoad]

Dang.

I was getting ready to expound on price takers versus price seekers in agriculture.

Steve

Expound all you want. Just don't call people idiots for not understanding what you're talking about. (not directed at you)

 

[Jstpssng]

In Missouri the farmer rarely, if ever gets to add incidental costs to his selling price.

My very large farmer friend says he pays 40 cents on every dollar of income to taxes.

I'm not sure what you mean by income. Are you talking about before expenses, or after? If the former, than he needs a new accountant. If the latter, that sounds about right for any self employed person. The income tax which we all pay, plus 15+-% Social Security, which is the employer's half as well as what an employee would pay.

Edit: If he's just talking about income taxes, etc as mentioned above then that does seem like a lot. (I'm at about 27%, if I add in employer's contribution to SSI) Add on property taxes, fuel taxes, sales taxes, ... I'm not sure how much it would be.

 

[Redneck in training]

We're having an interesting debate in our township. I don't want to discuss the specifics of the topic, but I'm hearing from large acreage land owners who say that because they pay more in taxes and allegedly have more invested in the township than someone who, say, owns a house on 1 acre -- that the large land owners desires should be given more weight than the opinion of someone who doesn't own a lot of land.

I would really love to hear your opinion on this. And I would love to hear your reasoning behind your opinion.

That is how feudalism came to existence. I think.