Do politicians Actually Care about the long term?

Bob Z

Politicians get elected 5 year terms. Do they actually beyond that? Ok i know they want to get elected for 2 or 3 terms or for ever if they can get away with it but do they actually plan for the long term future? If they have reserves they can use that to get better services or tax cuts and thus become popular. Did the house bust come about because of this? If a political party puts away money wont the incoming party(if its not them) get the benifit of it?

Sand

Nothing I have seen about decision making in any field where the individual themselves is not directly and solely at risk leads me to believe that bureacrats, "leaders" or politicians for that matter think any farther ahead than the next election/performance appraisal/audit.

And yes, in the Irish sense, the dream strategy for Fianna Fail is to get voted out in 2012, criticise FG while they take the unpopular but required measures to right the economy and fiscal strategy in place, and then get voted back in 2017 so they can go wild appointing their mates to semi state bodies and buying up union votes by awarding 20% pay increases to all public servants again.

At the root of it though is the voter. The average voter is an idiot, who doesnt really remember more than a few weeks back. Politicians know this.

snollup

No, if they did we might be in quite the mess we are in now.

bijapos

Most politicians aim for the next election, a bit obvious from their posturing and ****e talking. Rarely do they look at things long term. A few examples from the past would be Noel Browns 'Mother and child' scheme or Donogh O'Malleys education policies. There are of course other examples but these two spring to mind.

The sad thing today in the present crisis is that there is no real concept of our future. Economic and financial policies involve stuffing money into a huge black hole, neither the government or the opposition have any idea about how our society can improve as a whole. Most of them are posturing for whenever the next election is.

Even schemes/policies such as road building seem to be built as a result of present demand when it is already too late instead of a form of integrated future sustainable plan. Mad Cow roundabout is the best example, planned/built in the late 80's or early 90's we used a model which is anathema to anything built in Europe in the last 50 years and it costs millions to rectify it. Luas lines dont join up and so on...

Some Greens have a bit of vision in fairness, becoming more energy independent I welcome but this is a rarity in politics today.

Iskenderun

Erm... As a famous economist once said:
'In the long term, we are all dead'.

nesf

No they only care about the next election because to be brutally honest that's about as far thinking as the electorate are. The politicians are a product of the people that elect them unfortunately.