With the election coming up, waste seems to abound. I wonder how many hours that our elected officials should be spending on serving their constituents are spent washing clean dishes in soup kitchens and kissing unhappy babies? I understand that we need time to listen to all the candidates and examine their positions, but election season seems to get longer and longer every year. Other democracies have much shorter campaign lengths and manage to function just fine. British are closer to 1 month and I don't hear the good folks across the pond clamoring for more time to make a decision. Let's be honest. Those of us who aren't political wonks don't really pay much attention to national or local elections until a month or less before the election any way. It isn't just wasting the candidates' time, either. It is wasting OUR time with the onslaught of ad after melodramatic ad.
*image by 401(K)
Speaking of ads, this leads me to the other huge waste of American political campaigns: money. I suppose on one level, political money isn't wasted. Money spent on advertising has a huge effect, and can sway elections. But on another level, it represents a fantastic waste. Most of money is going to line the pockets of the CEOs of media corporations, or executives of ad agencies. Just imagine what our economy could be like if the billions of dollars poured into vicious television and radio ads were invested in small businesses.
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