Agreed, I’m in full support of the mandatory voting. A lot of people think it’s an egregious use of power, but what’s the argument? Forcing people to exercise their democratic rights? As an Aussie living abroad, I was blown away by the easy infrastructure I had available to vote from 5000km away!

Dutton is a straight no, but Labour haven’t been all that much better in recent years. Gone is the era of good leadership (Whitlam, Hawke, Keating).

Best thing we can do is threaten the duopoly by voting for independents with good policies, until the parties are willing to learn.

“A man who could afford fifty dollars had a pair of boots that'd still be keeping his feet dry in ten years' time, while a poor man who could only afford cheap boots would have spent a hundred dollars on boots in the same time and would still have wet feet.” 3/3

“But an affordable pair of boots, which were sort of OK for a season or two and then leaked like hell when the cardboard gave out, cost about ten dollars. But the thing was that good boots lasted for years and years.” 2/3

“The reason that the rich were so rich, Vimes reasoned, was because they managed to spend less money. Take boots, for example. A really good pair of leather boots cost fifty dollars.” 1/3

With respect, I think you are missing the point. Why are 90 million people NOT voting on a consistent basis? That answer is likely linked to what you said earlier about the US' issues. Finding ways to get voters engaged would naturally start to solve those same issues, taking ownership of democracy.

Fully agree with you on this.

Is that claim provable? That 90 million more people voting wouldn't have changed the outcome in any statistically significant way?

I'm not a US citizen so I can't vote, but I can sure as hell feel the consequences.

Happens in plenty of other democracies.

Voting is a privilege.

For approx. 92 million people to not vote, then whine about it is just sad, bordering on pathetic.

The best (and only) thing most people can do now is get up, dust themselves off, and go vote at the next, and every, opportunity.

Lives, freedom, and much more are on the line.

And? That is still embarrassingly low for a country that touts itself as a democracy.

If 85% of eligible voters turned up, that is another 70-75 MILLION votes that get counted. Effectively one whole candidate's worth of votes.

It's all well and good that we are mad about the election results, and the absolute charade that is the Second Trump Adminisration. However, let's not forget that voter turnout was 59% of the eligible population.

He won with just 31% of the country voting for him.

Absolute. Joke.

This is heavenly!

Straight into the soul

After watching your podcast with Dan Priestley, I am beyond disappointed in my fellow Australian's ridiculous view that a 1% (or higher) tax on extreme wealth would disincentivise the rich from getting to that level. Are you serious mate? You would rather make $10M at 0% tax instead of $100M at 20%?

Mate I am so glad I found your work. It’s literally like a piece of magical realism that pops onto my feed every once in a while.

Sounds like this is Canada’s most important election in (recent) history. Does Carney have the numbers?

As an Australian, it blows my mind that (a) voting is non-compulsory, and (b) people don’t vote when it’s literally their strongest democratic action aside from how they spend money.

Damn I did not know that. I was sure that after tRump’s egregious comments about Canada as the 51st state, PP would have shown some opposition. Makes total sense that Trump wants a spineless “populist” to win though.