Which is democracy. It is fair in that sense, although surely it will not feel that way at all times.
(Not advocating for this, just an interesting thing to think about)
As it comes to housing though, I remain convinced that the issue is not as political as many make it out to be. See my other comment:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36486626
Meaning, even if the young seize more political power, there isn't going to be a law they can pass that says "cut rent in half".
uhh what? we're talking about britain here. I don't know what kind of yank(?) political dysfunction you're alluding to, but nobody has any trouble voting because of a lack of ID here. you don't need one to vote. you notify the electoral roll when you move into a house or flat, then a few weeks before election day you get a bit of paper in the post, you can bring it to the polling station to prove you live there.
During the recent elections in England about 14,000 people were denied a vote due to lack of ID.
The press has, as usual, not been entirely honest about this. In particular, there was a talking point about how only one non-passport and non-driving license form of ID that young people are likely to have compared with much more forms of ID that older people will have, but that one form of ID is a blanket scheme that providers of ID sign up to in order for it to be valid as proof of age. There is no equivalent blanket scheme for ID that older people are likely to have.
In 2017 for example the minimum number of votes across the country needed to take down Theresa May (or more realistically have her form a true minority government) was something like 2500.
We have an extremely disproportional electoral system.
If we are talking about 0.25% on average then I doubt it could have changed much in these local elections (back in May in England and Northern Ireland).
If anybody wants to play with the data from the General Election in 2017 they can do so here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_2017_United_Kin...
Sort the table by "Mjrty." in ascending order. Right at the top we see wins for SNP, Labour, SNP, Labour, and Labour that easily could have been wins for Lib Dem, Tories, Tories, Tories, and Tories.
And 67m is nothing close to the size of the electorate of the local elections that number comes from.
And as another commenter wrote, a small number of votes can matter a great deal.
It also says nothing about the remaining 30% except that they "brough a type that was not accepted". We don't actually know if they even had the right to vote.
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/about-14000-people-england-...
Those who did have the right to vote could have gotten a free Voter Authority Certificate before the election:
https://www.gov.uk/apply-for-photo-id-voter-authority-certif...
https://www.reuters.com/world/uk/about-14000-people-england-...
It also doesn't say how many of the 30% actually had the right to vote. It only says that they "brought a type that was not accepted".
To be clear, it’s not a real problem in the US either, but some people like to pretend it is. Don’t believe things you read on Reddit or wherever.
> they paid for the right kind of ID, or navigated an impenetrable web of underpaid bureaucrats
Pretty much everyone starts driving around 16-18 and has a driver's license
> manage to get off work on election day
CA is an early voting state where ballots are mailed to you ~1 month in advance. You can drop them off at your convenience at one of the numerous drop-off locations.
Really, CA makes it as easy to vote as possible including same-day registration. There is no excuse for young people to not vote, except for their apathy.
Many people in the UK don't bother with a licence. It can be prohibitively expensive when you consider the costs of lessons, a vehicle, and of the licence itself.
Many people in the UK don't bother with a licence.
where a driver's licence is almost essential in order to go about daily life.
According to https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/populati... there's about 1.2% of the people in each age group <17 in England, which means 1.2*17 ~= 20 of the people in the England are ineligible for a drivers licence. So there's only about 6% of people in the England who could have a full drivers licence, but don't. So either they give licences out in the cornflakes at Tescos, or almost the whole adult population of the UK wants a drivers licence.
https://www.ethnicity-facts-figures.service.gov.uk/culture-a...
My country solves this by issuing a plastic ID card to each citizen. You apply for it at your local town hall, and it is free of charge. You can use that ID for voting, or any other interaction with the government when they need to confirm your identity. Hell, they even issued a smartphone application recently, that can be legally used as ID.
And more HN vagueness in this post: "My country" Why not just say your country name? After all, most of the world is developing. You don't have much to lose.
A passport costs £82.50 and is rather less useful as ID inside the UK because it doesn't show an address.
> Sounds like democracy?
Young people might get their first chance to vote at age 23 - assuming they paid for the right kind of ID, or navigated an impenetrable web of underpaid bureaucrats to get the mythical free ID. And if they manage to get off work on election day. Meanwhile the elderly are reliably on the register (because they're not being forced to move around, because again they own a home) and encouraged to vote even if they're expected to die before the results take effect.