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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   32629 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of May 1, 2023

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I highly doubt they'll commit to spending hundreds of thousands or millions on more children so they can cast an extra half vote each in three or four consecutive general elections before the kids turn 18.

Oh I absolutely agree they aren't going to be having more children because of this policy directly giving them an extra half vote. However once this policy has been in place for a few cycles politics/society will have shifted to be more welcoming towards parents/more hostile towards the childless (since politicians play towards groups they can get votes from, and parents will be a more important group under this policy), and that may well encourage such people to have an extra child or so.

In the UK this would probably see a big swing to the left and to Labour, since the big age boundary where people start voting Conservative is around 45-55, and most parents with children aged 0-18 are below this age (average age of parent at birth - for all births, not first child - is 32-33 in the UK).

In the short term yes, but in the long term conservatives would be forced to court the young, unlike now where they are focusing almost exclusively on the old. This would lead to much better outcomes for people aged 20-40 as both parties would be vying strongly for their votes.

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