h4890 @[email protected]

@ChrisMayLA6 This is very interesting. I guess we'll see the ferraris and yachts start to appear, once they have left office.

In sweden, due to the enormous amount of gang violence, there is a new law where the police can simply just take your property if you cannot prove where you got the money from to buy it.
They've seized houses, jewelry and luxury cars from a lot of drug lords so far.
This sounds like an excellent law to use against corrupt politicians, but I think we will never see that.

@ChrisMayLA6 the communist and green parties who are pretty extremist, and sit comfortably at 6-7 % each. They exist to cover the extreme left flank, so that the socialists in sweden can move in towards the middle.

@ChrisMayLA6 I think that this is perhaps telling us that socialism, in its current form in europe, is kind of a spent force? From my point they are of course leftists, _but_, looking at the swedish version, they have moved right. Gone are the days of trying to implement 100% tax on the rich.

On the other hand, there are the norwegian ones, who managed to increase the wealth tax leading to a record exodus of billionaires from norway, so maybe it isn't a trend?

In sweden, there's always

@ChrisMayLA6 Interesting. Another bug in democracy. I wonder if democracy, the modern version, is inherently unstable, so that it will turn into authoritarianism (overt or covert) within a few 100 years?

@ChrisMayLA6 Well, I hope that the UK will now graduate to a 4 party system. It would be much better for democracy than the old 2 party system.

I'm also waiting for a green party that focuses on Björn Lomborgs win/win green, and which does not only talk about one-sided sacrifice.

I think there are a few % of right leaning voters that might be tempted to vote for a right leaning win/win green party. I do not think any such party exists. Usually to me, the greens seem to be on the left.

@ChrisMayLA6 successfully limited and/or reduced the power of politicians in recent times?

I'm not talking about going from authoritarianism to democracy, but more, if any western democracy ever managed to limit the power of politicians?

@ChrisMayLA6 I call this the conservative paradox. No matter the party, left or right, once they win, their only aim is to preserve their status. That can mean some small shifts in how you count votes, or new directives to the public tv (see poland and hungary for this) but overall, the system is maintained, since you benefit greatly by it as long as you stay on top.

So once you win, there's generally no enormous reason to change anything.

Is there any country in the world that has

@w Nej, 3 km är bara någon form av minsta mått. Är det ren skog runt omkring kan det säkert vara 1 km, gles skog/fält, gärna 3 eller mer.

För egen del har jag inga planer på avverkning. Snarare tvärt om. Djur och natur får gärna göra vad de vill på min mark. Förutom fästingar, dom kommer att vara strängt förbjudna! Eventuella fästingar som bryter mot förbudet kommer att bestraffas med döden.

@loremipsum A crushing victory!

@ChrisMayLA6 It is a valid opinion, and I do not have an answer. ;)

@ChrisMayLA6 But this is dangerous! Because the ones who use this argument to the fullest tend to be leftist extremists or nationalist extremists. At the core, it is nothing strange, the ones we chose to govern should do so out of care and not out of greed, and therefore their salaries and conditions should be the same as for the ones they govern.

But the fact that it is not so today, opens the door to demagogues, and not to true democratic forces.

@ChrisMayLA6 point in my life, when my father is dead, and when I'm somewhat retired, I will be forced to seek out some kind of community. But time will tell!

@ChrisMayLA6 Ahh... but I think that you are naturally a social and likeable person! I'm somewhat of a misanthrope, or rather, I have become, so I have a very small core that I see, and probably not more often than once every 2 months or so. The people I see often is my father and my wife. That's almost enough.

But I do worry that when I retire, it won't be enough, and science teaches us that being involved in some kind of community is beneficial for mental health. So I suspect that at some

@ChrisMayLA6 Let me add another theory. Since the uk railway does not have the best reputation, this also affects recruitment. But assume it achieves the swiss or japanese reputation, then all of a sudden, it would become a sought after, high prestige job, and this would further increase reliability and service mindedness.

@Toble_Miner Would they be open to working with a nazi? I know one who is fairly rich who might be interested, but naturally he would want influence.

@JoeBravo77 Could it be that jews make great husbands/wives?

I never tried myself, so couldn't say.

@ChrisMayLA6 Also note culture. Japans railsystem has become a source of natural pride and identity. That means that anything and everything goes, when it comes to preserving this reputation and institution.

I am convinced that if the UK rail system should achieve the same status, it would start to work better. Sadly, artificially implementing that status does not work.

@ChrisMayLA6 Realizing this, together with the corona debacle, is what made me stop voting. I reduce my tax bill with lawyers instead, and generally try to avoid people. It has made me much happier!

@ChrisMayLA6 We are not surprised, and it is important to note, that this is common practice all over the "democratic" west. I bet you a beer that if you were to compare the returns on investments of politicians vs the people, you would find that the politicians somehow perform a lot better than the people.

But it doesn't stop there. Compare wealth, and accumulated pension benefits, and you'll see that todays "democratic" politicians are our new lords and masters and they live like it too.