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Originally Posted by O.A.F.K.1.1
This whole referendum is going to be so tilting.
Actual verbatim from a voxpop on BBC 1pm news.
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I am undecided as I dont understand enough about it, but I am definitely going to be voting out.
Wrt good outcomes, a referendum on Europe is just a bad idea.
Untrained and uneducated people are terrible at predicting the effects of any policy, never mind the effects of an incredibly complex and far reaching policy like the Brexit. They have no idea how the EU works or how the economy is going to be affected. They ignore research that contradicts what Farage and Boris say because 'they got it wrong about the Euro too!' They will not be able to determine what's in their best interests. If there is a referendum at all, it should be over general objectives and values, not over opinions on what evidence and models say the effects of leaving the EU will be. Asking the people about the latter makes about as much sense as having them vote on whether gravitational waves were found at LIGO.
But even if if we allow people to set objectives and values in a referendum, from an outcome perspective, we would still be better off if we gave more weight to those values that people hold robustly because they are closely connected to their well-being, as opposed to foaming-at-the-mouth-anger that reflects whatever misinformation the tabloids expose them to.
People's stable interests are having a job, a decent pay with the prospect of wage growth, affordable housing, healthcare etc. Staying in the EU is the preferable course of action wrt those goals. Yet ask people about their interests in the context of a Brexit, and you'll get some nonsense about billions flowing to Johnny Foreigner's children in Poland, you'll get some idiots parroting IDS on how being in the EU increases the risk ISIS rampage through London and once you've pointed out that there's no evidence for any of that, you'll get some vague mentions of 'sovereignty'. The Sun and the Mail relentlessly demonising the EU for decades has nurtured a deep and irrational anger against it that doesn't hinge on any real thing that's actually happening in the EU.
Letting the people decide the EU question in a referendum means willfully ignoring that they can't work out what the consequences of the Brexit are, and even if they could, it means giving undue weight to those of their preferences that are the result of being brainwashed by the tabloids
Last edited by Vael; 02-22-2016 at 07:16 PM.