Joachim

I try to explain myself better with this personal analogy. I used to invest in blue-chip stocks. I did OK with these investments.

Once a year, I got the annual report and it came with a proposal to vote for a certain board of directors. A few times, I got a proposal to vote for another board of directors. I never voted.

My reasoning is that I didn't want to invest the time to research the current board and the inner workings of the company. Then I had to speculate on where the company would be five years from now with this knowledge. Even if I did this research, it could lead to the wrong decision.

Instead, I left the decision to other shareholders were where more on top of these corporate affairs. In this way, I would not be diluting the vote of shareholders who would be voting more wiser than I.

In a like manner, civic voters who do not want to vote should not be forced to vote. In that way, they do not dilute the result created by the voters who have put some investment into their vote. Having said that, it is still very important that they have the right to vote. But it is their choice to exercise it.

I ran into another Australian on Medium. Tony Bracks has developed an alternative democracy. Here is my review of his work:

https://davevolek.medium.com/solving-for-democracy-book-review-c32e1b9bd22c

Throughout the world, many average citizens are contemptuous of their political leaders. Both apathy and cynicism are present in a big way. Even the social democracies of Scandinavia are critical of their leaders--regardless of who they elect.

When you say democracy in Australia is working well, I don't think you are speaking for many Australians.

When you say compulsory voting is the way to go, I say this is a moot point that, at best, isn't solving the real problem. It might be making things worse.