Should an 81 years old Scot, have had more right to vote on Scotland independency than a newborn Scot?

Sir, on your first page September 19, we saw the photo of a Jock Robertson, who from how he is dressed is undoubtedly a Scot, and who says: “I have waited all my life for this vote”.

He is 81 years old… and my first though was, I am sure he might deserve to vote, and I am truly happy for him… but, really, should an 81 years old Scot be allowed to vote for on the future of Scotland, when all those under 16, and who will be much longer affected by the outcome cannot?

And it is not that I suggest new born should vote… but I wonder if Jock Robertson, exercising a voting right in the name of perhaps a young grandchild of his, would vote the same as he voted his own vote.

In these baby-boomers’ days and when so many of those 18 to 25 year olds do not seem sufficient interested in elections so as to look up from their I-pads, I have often thought that democracy would be much more dynamic and responsible, if mothers, or fathers, were allowed to vote in the name of their children…

And I say this also because then perhaps we would be able to have governments who do not accept the risk aversion of regulators, and which have banks not financing the future but only refinancing the past.

In 2006 I published an Op-Ed in Venezuela that stated: “Whenever on television we see a desperately poor mother telling how she has been let down again by politicians, it just evidences that her voice and her vote does not count enough.

If that mother, or father, besides speaking in the name of her or his own voting rights, were also speaking on behalf of the votes of their children, her or his voice would carry much more power.

Since it is the young who will benefit, or suffer, for a longer time from what governments’ do or not do, they not only should have a vote but also perhaps have more votes than adults. In some countries, especially those who demographically are in the process of becoming real baby-boomer dictatorships, the lack of representation of youth can have serious consequences.

We see all around us how the short-term interest reigns, we even hear now about accounting in real time, while problems that are perceived as of a more long-term nature, such as protection the environment [and lack of jobs] accumulate everywhere.

To assign a voting right to the newborn, can be the most effective way to remind all other voters that there are also who are interested in what might happen in eighty years time.”

In summary, if the average life is eighty years, a new born should have 80 votes (exercised by his mother or older brother) someone like me would have 16 votes left, and someone over eighty should count his blessings and be glad if he is allowed to keep one as a memento. I do not want to owe the world to my children, I want to assure their rights as stakeholders and make it all more of a joint venture.

http://onechildonevote.blogspot.com

But would they listen?

Martin Wolf suggests “What Obama should tell the leaders of the Group of 20”, February 25 and it all sounds so extremely intelligent and rational. Problem is though that the chances of obtaining a rational responses to rational requests are very slim in a world where there has been so little capacity to respond to any threat of something that could occur more than a week ahead, and in a world where so many promises, like that of .7% of GNP to foreign assistance are continuously and shamelessly broken by most.

In this respect if I was Obama, which I am of course not, lucky you, I would start by asking... how can we make sure that the upcoming summit will not be a waste of time since we clearly have no time to waste?

As a bare minimum, before flying over the pond, I would request the Europeans to deposit at least half of their voting rights in the International Monetary Fund, in the same escrow account where I on behalf of the US would also be depositing its own half of the voting rights, also before flying over the pond, and so as to be able to proceed down the road of international cooperation in a much more credible and expedient way. Wasting even a second of the summit on the voting right issue should just not be an option.

Also if I was Obama, and Martin Wolf, I would stop from dividing the world between surplus and deficit countries since that division helps very little when trying to foment a spirit of international cooperation when clearly all the countries are hurting.