We were in the middle of a discussion about half-decent forms of democracy when we were interrupted. http://www.politicalforum.com/political-opinions-beliefs/145897-new-zealand-57.html So far, we have agreement that STV helps every vote contribute to the final outcome, though via an indirect route. We also have agreement that Pepsie is cute.
Australia also has MMP voting for the Federal Senate - the reason being is that it helps prevent one party from dominating the Senate, and gives third parties a bit more power there creating a balance of power.
In NZ, under MMP, we also have seven parties in parliament. Some seats won by electorate wins, some by passing the 5% threshold in overall votes. Given that you can make one of your votes count by voting for a party and the other (we have 2) by separately voting for an electorate candidate, do we need a complicated STV system? Granted, the only complication about STV is the computer model needed to count the votes. In NZ, we can do that. In Florida we, of course, know they can't.
OK. So Americans don't know much about democracy. Let's change the subject to something they do know something about. How to subvert commercial competition. We have a pharmaceutical agency that purchases all drugs used in NZ's health system centrally. It examines efficacy, price and availablity. American Big Pharma doesn't like it because it makes decisions that work in favour of generics and away from the fancy-priced American drugs that do no better in terms of actually helping patients. For some reason, there is a "free" trade agreement in the making with the US. As part of that, the US wants us to dismantle an agency and policy that saves us billions of dollars. Why we would want to go the ruinous route already taken by the US health care system beats me. The US subsidises most of its own primary (agricultural) industries and imposes tariffs in order to exclude competition from efficient producers like New Zealand. Yet it wants free access to our health market for products that are over-priced and not needed. And in the process destroying a highly efficient purchasing agency. We all know Americans are masters of double standards. But this takes some sort of cake.
They want to benefit from the BILLIONS those drug companies have to spend on R&D for years at a time in order to create new and better drugs...but they just don't want to pay for it??
3rd on the Human Development Index. You are the ones that are 4th. http://hdr.undp.org/en/data/build/
New Zealand has a population of less than four and a half million. Florida has a population of more than eighteen and a half million. Of that population, only the Democrats had a problem with voting. New York City has almost double the population of the entire country of New Zealand. Get back to us when you become a real counry and not just a suburb or Austrlia.
Hell, you have to count only about a hundred and fifty votes in your little backwater country. That is, unless you give sheep the vote.
That's your point? That you have no idea that millions vote here? For democratic representation not corporate raiders.
Can't be too many millions.What do you have, maybe two million voters? We have more than that in the county I live in.
My point was, your Napoleon Complex is showing. It seems citizens of wee, little countries act the same as wee, little people. I happen to like New Zealand. I think it is amazingly beautiful and the people are friendly and industrious. Of course, just as with any other country, there are a few people who are just generally unlikable.
It's nice that you have a high HDI score, but that doesn't make New Zealand any more relevant to world politics.
The little country you describe as a backwater has just reinvented air travel. http://aerospaceblog.wordpress.com/2011/05/30/2617/
Didn't they say that about the first aircraft we also invented? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Pearse
Pearse's attempts didn't work. uncontrolled and unsustained = useless. The Wright Brothers showed the entire World how it's done: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_brothers#Flights
(Joe...just humor Awryly because he wants to feel relevant) New Zealand is awesome with the...um things that they do and all the stuff they make...like...this and that...they're amazing!