SHMIV wrote:Indeed not. If one is not contributing anything useful to our society, they ought not have a say in how our society is run. Allowing unproductive people to vote is what made our current mess possible.
This is one of the things that changed as we transitioned from a Republic to a Democracy. Another would be popular voting on Senators. The Founders were afraid of democracy because they were well versed in ancient Greece and what turned into mob rule.
Under a Republic, where the rule of law via the Constitution was upheld, the people were much more secure in their Rights regardless who was in charge. The Federal government really didn't manage or interact with citizens, but rather with the states. The laws mostly focused on managing the states within the power granted to it by the Constitution. The Republic had limited suffrage because the idea was that only those who had skin in the game should be voting on taxes, etc. This worked since the government wasn't to regulating and interacting with the citizens.
However, under our existing democracy 51% of the people force the other 49% to give up their wealth, submit to violations of their Rights, etc. Politicians, on both sides but just in different ways, have become masters of how to promise something for nothing in exchange for power. Thus were born the social and warfare states.