Ancient greek democracy involved the people debating issues in a large meeting,  then voting on them,
because this took time,  a panel of 500 was chosen by lottery, and the majority came in to vote major issues.

Now we live in a time when technology could allow us to return to such a direct democracy,

Modern democracy is a long way from this,  we get to vote between 2 packages of policies,  neither of which we like,

Our leaders know what's best for us as if we were bare arsed,  illiterate tree dwellers, and vote against the known wishes of the people without apology.

We pay our politicians a fortune to bicker in parliament,  but they aren't exchanging ideas to find best practice,  or consulting experts,   they leave with the ideas they came with,  and vote according to their political bosses,  who may allow them a conscience vote if they have one.
They largely aren't experts in any of the areas they are discussing.
The government decides against the wishes or well being of the people if this will give them the best chance of retaining power,  the fanatical minorities among us sway our politicians against the moderate masses, who pay their wages.

  They treat public money as their own,  voting for their own pay rates, instead of tendering their services at a price for the public to choose from.

Our western governments are running their wealthy countries broke,  at a time when technology should be making us all wealthy enough to work a short week and have all our needs met,
The huge resource of wisdom of our retired business heads, elderly journalists,  academics etc is untapped, as they splutter in vain at the governments incompetence.

Prime minister Gillard has 53 staff,  if she engaged them to formulate good policy,   we have already hired a parliament to do that,  if she hired them to run her numbers and spin,  she should foot the cost.
She is paid 500,000 a year,  but runs her own agenda,  to leave her own legacy,  and will be overpaid in retirement,  against the wishes of the public who pay the bill.

When Winston Churchill joined politics,  it was unpaid,  he often one secretary as leader of Britain,  once they found someone who could type fast enough,  now days, he could dictate his speeches into his phone, and have them typed up thru 'elance' for a few dollars.

Dan Ariely,  famous professor, researcher and author found that increasing rewards, as in pay,  actually results in a drop in performance,   I'm arguing for a nation run by secretaries following the wishes of the voting people,  but lets at least apply the science to politicians pay levels.

Before Mao,  China was run by 20,000 public servants,  now USA has 22 million,   -technology doesn't seem to be streamlining things much.  There are 11 million people employed in manufacturing in the US.

In an ideal society,  one person builds houses, another grows food,  another makes clothes, another cars,  tv sets,  and then we exchange goods,    if each worker has 2 administrators on their backs, and in their pockets,    they have to make 3 times as much, to have the same amount of goods,  but if the administrators are entitled to twice as much pay,  or more,  the worker can't afford the goods they've created.

Recent economic wisdom is that government spending will help us out of recession,  but govt. spending is like a magic trick that makes money disappear.

The Australian govt. is embarking on a program to allocate a billion dollars for 20,000 disabled people,   350 G is for the disabled,  650 G for administration.  A private business of a thousand people would have one paymaster,  counting hours worked, meal allowances, super entitlements etc.  (they have computers)  20 paymasters could pay 20,000 disabled people, and take into account their needs,  20 times 50.000 /year is 1 million,  why does the government plan to allocate 650 million to admin?  these paymasters could work from home as part of their contracts,  1 million should be enough.

Advanced Asian economies spend 6 to 8% of GDP on medical,  and all of their citizens have access to adequate medical care,   medical costs are the leading cause of bankruptcy in the US,   while US pays 15% of GDP for medical,
My apprentice friend waited 3 weeks to get her broken collarbone pinned,  how third world is that?
45,000 Americans die each year because they don't have health insurance.

We pay our Governor general 650.000 / year,  and provide a free mansion,   duties include taking calls from the queen,  and sacking bad governments,  I'm suggesting we can't afford this if we can't afford decent medical care for our working poor,  GG. isn't going to sack the government, no matter how incompetent   it's been done before and proved very unpopular,   ex prime ministers could take any calls from the Queen, where she doesn't want to discuss biz with the prime minister,

We could  employ an out of work santa to dress up as GG as required,  for maybe as little as $20 / hour,  if we got one banned from working with kids, we could get uninterrupted service year round.

We are paying some half a million / year per person, to mistreat refugees,
African countries face a flood of refugees,  and manage to keep them alive by distributing sacks of grain,  and sheets of iron to build humpies    we could easily house these people, and as many of there mates who are afraid for their lives in remote farming areas,  where local labor costs have put farms and factories out of work,   we import Chinese beetroot instead of growing our own because of labour costs.  Farming is better than mining from the point of view that you can only sell the minerals once,  the farm is renewable.

we can swap them a few days work/ week for the cost of housing them, (in individual family sheds with group cooking facilities)  and give them access to local skills training and English courses,  even if we choose to send them back when their countries settle down, we can make them better off.  I slept under a plastic sheet while I picked fruit when I first arrived here from NZ,  I didn't feel an able person should collect the dole.

Five years after arriving here,  90% of afghans refugees are on the dole,  when are they planning to work?  We've let the Bonds sock factory shut, because socks are slightly cheaper from China,   the govt. should have bought it, relocated it to an area of low housing cost,  and run the unemployed thru to make up for the dole they're paid, and introduce them to the idea of working.  Those who actually want to work should be allocated for free to lighten the load of those who are working,  instead of punishing those on the dole who earn too much,  the dole should be minimal survival,  with the balance made up from your working 3 or 4 days a week, on allocation basis,  if you employ 10 people, you get allocated a couple of people off the dole queue, your existing workers get some downtime,  and hopefully you get increased productivity. Current 'work for the dole' schemes are about punishing the unemployed for not finding nonexistent jobs,   they're run for show,  total of 5000 people nationwide last time it was raised, and the work is as useful as painting rocks.