Kurzon posted:

In the novel Starship Troopers by Robert Heinlein, only veterans are allowed to vote. Heinlein believed that veterans would vote more wisely than non-veterans because they understand discipline and sacrifice, which would lead to better governance. But selectorate theory tells me that this would be a terrible idea.

Only 7% of Americans are veterans and therefore only 7% of the American population would have a vote in Heinlein's Utopia. Since voter turnout in elections is never 100% and a candidate needs a majority of the vote to win, you're talking about presidents winning elections with just 1 or 2% of the population's support. This is what political scientists call a small-coalition regime. In a small-coalition regime, the ruler is incentivized to run a regime oriented towards private rewards. He looks after the interests of that 2% at the expense of everybody else, because he only needs that 2% of people supporting him to stay in power. This will lead to a neglect of public goods. The country will have worse roads, worse education systems, worse healthcare, etc. The people will actually be worse off.

What's more, the veterans themselves won't have it so good either. A feature of small-coalition regimes is that the members of the coalition are always looking to expel members and reduce the size of the coalition, so that the surviving members can have larger fractions of the pie for themselves. So what I imagine would happen is that, over time, the ruler would pass laws narrowing what "veteran" means. He might pass laws saying that only veterans who served a minimum number of years can vote. Or maybe only veterans above a certain rank (eg anyone below captain cannot vote). Or maybe only veterans who served in combat roles. Whatever, the idea is to reduce the number of people who are eligible to vote, thereby reducing the size of the winning coalition. The smaller the coalition, the easier it is for the ruler to hold on to power.

What Heinlein's Utopia will be is what Bruce Bueno de Mesquita calls a junta regime. Small coalition, small selectorate. These kinds of regimes are very unstable. Junta leaders face coup d'etats far more often than dictators or democratic leaders.

Kurzon posted:

I am basing off that YouTube video.

Heinlein says it's that veterans understand discipline and sacrifice. That's what matters, not intelligence or ethics.

McNally posted:

Hey, OP, I'm going to ask that you actually participate in this thread instead of just dropping by with "hey I saw this video about a book I didn't read" which I view as a drive-by shitpost.

bulletsponge13 posted:

He literally says service doesn't make you wiser in the book. It's a major point of one of the H&MP class lectures, and is reinforced in other sections- like when Rico attends Officer Training.

Define education and criminal history for political office, because both can be bought without earning it. Bernie Sanders has a criminal history related to his Civil Rights work- does that mean he is barred? What about Juvenile crimes? I can buy a degree online; I can get a music theory degree from Liberty University; what about my Certificate in Cryptozoology from the Center of Excellence? I'm not being a dick, I want to understand. Since you won't talk about the thread topic you started- the contents of the book- I'll entertain the rest of this.


And having served, if anyone was an Officer, they should be barred from public office.

Kurzon posted:

I can get my own electronic copy easily enough, thanks.

I think Heinlein's idea that service makes you wiser somehow would be better if applied to leaders, not voters. Selectorate theory tells me that it is bad to disenfranchise people for any reason, whether it be lack of military service or poor education. Leaders are another matter. I in fact think people should be barred from running in elections if they lack education or have a criminal history. If only veterans can serve as leaders, that's OK because as long as they must depend on a broad support base to stay in office, they are incentivized to deliver good public policy.

bulletsponge13 posted:

I said what I said.

bulletsponge13 posted:

As stated, the Officer Corps as a whole (obv some exceptions apply) tend to be self serving, and politically cutthroat in pursuit of personal gain. They tend to be poor leaders even within the institution- an incestuous little institution full of cliques and cohorts, one with customs and policies far different from civilian reality. They tend to be operating removed from reality, from a position of privilege and protection. Officers tend to have the worst traits of politicians in spades, and not enough social experience to know it's wrong.

They tend to be the types who think about how great a Purple Heart will look in their jacket without contemplating the cost.

I'm also a fairly bitter E who had to deal with their garbage.

bulletsponge13 posted:

Other posters can temper your expectations. My experience with Nobles was fairly limited, and very tainted by both those experiences and my own attitude, which never quite jived with the Army. I'm sure that it's not as bad as I portray. Part of my attitude comes from dealing mostly pay grades I had no business being around- LTC and above.

PookBear posted:

Sentinel posted:

Woah is this the first ever GIP mod challenge?

bulletsponge13 posted:

There's his new profile pic. Red text "Literacy Means Citizenship"

bulletsponge13 posted:

Funny enough, I literally gave my copy away tonight.

The audio book is on YouTube. OP had no excuse.

bulletsponge13 posted:

Can I rebuy his account and restrict his posting to this thread?

M_Gargantua posted:

Don't throw your money away, he can email the mods and ask nicely to complete his challenge

Nystral posted:

It will be hosed up beyond repair inside a month. Unless there is a grad student lounge or some kind you’re honestly better off making friends with the college facilities team and seeing if you can donate to them and the staff lounge. Less likely to be hosed up, more likely to be taken care of. It’s also a way of reminding them they are seen by some of the students and tap into their useful knowledge.

slurm posted:

The full auto espresso machines take up a significant amount of our cadet's time and efforts in a department of 8 people. They're finicky, fragile, and honestly fairly mediocre.

McNally posted:

Leave the modding to me please.

Nystral posted:

Yes.

You’re probably going to have to get approval but I’d start with Nadia Jones or the Helpdesk person I forget. You’ll need to charm them and put in the effort.

If that fails you may have luck with the HVAC shop guys. They may prove to be part of the university’s E-4 mafia equivalent.


An alternative would be to see if your college has a Grad TA room / lounge and see if they can accommodate you. This may be better for your academia career as it butters up folk in your college.

But basically what I’m saying is keep it away from undergrads as IME college is just year 13-16 of high school and people still aren’t the greatest at respecting other’s stuff.