| In addition to what others have said, there is another consequence to enacting Poll Taxes and Literacy requirements.
How many people would that be alienating?
Literacy in 1979 was estimated at 97%. 20 years later, it was down to 74%. The truth about those numbers is that they don't specify English literacy. A perfectly literate and articulate Spanish speaking immigrant (legal or otherwise) who is not a citizen might fail an English literacy test.
So approximately 25% of America wouldn't be able to vote based on literacy.
As of 2005, approximately 5% of America is unemployed.
As of 2003, approximately 12.5% of America was at poverty level or lower.
Take a good look at those numbers and consider again the people you'd be alienating with literacy and financial requirements.
What would happen when real, honest, hard-working Americans, just struggling to make ends meet, now lose their ability to vote because they have more important things to pay for than their poll tax.
Before, they could vote and, theoretically, have an equal voice in policies that affected their lives. Now you'd be telling them that because they can't read, or can't afford to vote, other people would be making those decisions.
It's one thing to vote and lose. That's just how the cookie crumbles.
But it's another to not even have a chance to cast that vote.
Someone on another forum suggested a Democracy where only those with a certain level of education could vote. My answer to that is the same as my answer to this.
You would be fueling the fires of revolution of those who suddenly have lost a right guaranteed to them by the Constitution. They are now stuck in a country that doesn't want their voice heard.
Think about what those people do for a living, the services they accomplish, and what would happen to America if they all decided to stop working. |