Originally Posted By: Derid
Proposition A is debatable, proposition B is patently false. Thus conclusion invalidated.

Its worth mentioning here I suppose, exactly how you are misusing Maslow.

According to one of the first lines in your own link "So Maslow acknowledges that many different levels of motivation are likely to be going on in a human all at once. His focus in discussing the hierarchy was to identify the basic types of motivations, and the order that they generally progress as lower needs are reasonably well met."

In other words, even Maslow himself admitted multiple levels are ongoing simultaniously whereas you claim "Participation in democracy does not come until all these basics are fulfilled." which is not even something Maslow would have claimed. Also, "reasonably well met" - you have defined no criteria regarding what is reasonable levels of health care in regards to participation means you have no reasonable grounds to suggest, especially in the face of ample empirical evidence to the contrary - that the current health care system, or a free market system would or does provide such a lower level of service that it would comparatively prevent civic participation in a statistically significant manner that would amount to voter suppression fait accompli.



Meant to address this, but missed it in a huge train of quotes.

Maslow's theory and hierarchy of needs is well-established principle in both psychology and sociology. It states "If basic needs are not met, then there is a tendency to ignore higher needs".

What does it mean? Well, it means that humans tend to prioritize basic needs. It does not explain what any individual would do, there are individual exceptions to this, but over large enough population sample tendency is there.

To preserve democratic process it is not enough to simply demonstrate that it is possible to participate in it, you have to ensure that there is no barriers to entry in such participation. Well, having to address your basic needs is one huge barrier that we know will turn voters away.

So what does it mean in context of democratic process? It means that people that do not have basic needs satisfied will tend to ignore democratic process. I hope you are familiar with historical examples of this, I believe almost every dictator in the last 100 years came to power promising to address basic needs of population... and people let them, because they were more interested in addressing basic needs instead of higher needs, such as protecting principles of free society.

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