A couple of weeks ago, I commented on a suggestion by Joe "The Nerd" Ferraro who believes that increasing the number of U.S. congressmen will improve our "representative Democracy." He sent me this e-mail the other day, to which I respond below.

Mr. Spencer,

I just saw your mention of a couple of weeks ago. I am really grounded on planet earth. I actually grew up in Chester (St Robert's '75) reading the
Delco Times, maybe that is where my problems started...

Since you want to poke a hole in my premise, let me ask you at the National Level how many Congresspeople do you think we need? (I don't think it was really all that fair to shift what I was talking about from Federal to State.)

At this point we are playing a zero-sum game against the south and the west. Ten years ago we gained people and lost seats. If the lower house of
Congress is supposed to be flexible (as it was in the 19th century) why does it have to stagnate now. The founders of the country put a mechanism in to allow for growth. If you are one of those people who believes the constitution was written by four guys named Matt, Mark, Luke, and John - then we have really gotten away from what they wanted.

Are we done growing in the same way we stopped inventing at the beginning of
the 20th century when they closed the patent office?

What is a fair number of Representatives for what is becoming a more multicultural (heterogeneous) society?

You can make fun of me, but the numbers are telling me pretty loudly (I have a math degree, fwiw) that our democracy is floating away from us. Seriously, what do you make of these numbers?

Spencerblog responds:

Joe,

The difference between us is that we see the world differently. When you see a congressman you see a altruistic servant of the people. When I see a congressman I see a self-serving careerist who takes from one group of people and gives to another, while paying himself a nice salary with excellent benefits.

Advocating for more congressman is like advocating for more ticks on your dog.

I'm on the dog's side.

Cheers