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Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

theguardian.com

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Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#91

Post by alan_cx »

iterationx wrote: post #68
ilamont wrote: post #7

Pope Francis has also rejected some of the traditional trappings of the Papacy (1): For his unveiling as pope Wednesday to the throng in St. Peter's Square, he shunned a special fur-trimmed red half-cloak and golden cross in favor of plain white vestments and his usual iron cross. To go pray at a church in central Rome on Thursday, he hopped into a regular Vatican sedan, not the papal limousine. He prefers a simple m…

Minute 7:42 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cn9t0m6eG4Q

Always wondered; if there is a god, is stuff like this a demonstration of his contempt for humanity or proof that he does indeed have a sense of humor?

Anyway, thanks for posting, it was hilarious.

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#92

Post by Xylakant »

claudius wrote: post #86
ricardobeat wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The size of the government is proportional to the population. Those costs are not fixed at all. Anyway, you're missing the point. He doesn't have all of this by choice, not because Uruguay can't pay for it.

The size of the head of state is rather constant, and that is the only size discussed here – of course the underlying bureaucracy grows larger in larger countries, but that doesn’t mean the president can suddenly be in two jets at the same time.

Sure, the president can't. But since the size of the country is much larger, there's the governors and mayors of large cities which govern about as many people as the head of Uruguay and I'm fairly certain that each of those has a "palace" about as big as the presidential palace in Uruguay, a motorcade, a security detail larger than 2 armed guards and neither of them showed up on a vespa after elected or - for that matter - any time at all.

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#93

Post by crdoconnor »

skrebbel wrote: post #84

This is really nice to read, but it's not that special. For example, the Dutch prime minister earns €144.000 euros a year. It's a high salary, but nothing at all that affords a palace. A good senior programmer earns the same in the valley, and the taxes here are higher. I find this whole idea that presidents should be posh and it's super-special if they're not, well, a bit odd and basically thr wrong approach. We sho…

The flip side of that coin is that poorly paid elected officials are much easier to bribe.

In the US Congress (& even Presidents) view elected office as a stepping stone to a better paid corporate retirement. Look at how much Clinton gets paid to speak at Goldman Sachs' events.

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#94

Post by crdoconnor »

mb_72 wrote: post #20
bpodgursky wrote: post #11

Uruguay's population is 3.3 million, which is a bit smaller than Oklahoma, for comparison. It's not shocking to me that a head of state of a small country like that doesn't have all the trappings and security a of a country of 100mm / 300mm / a billion people.

Estonia has a population of 1.3 million, and the head of state certainly has all of those 'trappings' and security etc. It's more about a deliberate choice of how the country's money is spent.

Your parliamentary debate chamber looks like an overgrown classroom though. Quite austere I thought.

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#95

Post by stfu »

I thought the pandering to the underbelly ideology would only be celebrated among the reddit crowd. Sad to see that hn has been increasingly infected with these ideas as well.

Sure, I am all for supporting the homeless and needy, but come on, re-purposing the presidential residence as a homeless shelter? That is the epitome of a populist gesture!

If he is the president, he should act like a president, dress like a president and live like a president. I, at least, would want my country be represented among equals.

Inviting over other heads of states to your two bedroom apartment in the suburbs might be cute if you are pandering to certain segments of the voting population. But unless he wants to become the Mother Teresa of international politics this is just a joke.

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#96

Post by pgeorgi »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #89
yodsanklai wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a more socialist country where health care and education are free, and where we have have a good balance between work and personal time and I hope it'll stay the same despite the international pressure. I don't know why "socialism" is such a bad word in the US. Probably propaganda from the rich to keep their privileges. I had the chance to live in the US for a couple of years (it was a child dream of mine t…

healthcare and education in your country aren't free - they are paid for by high taxes on the middle class

Do you even know where the parent poster is living?

Since healthcare in _my_ "socialist" (from a USA point of view) country certainly isn't generally paid for by taxes but by insurance fees. (Exception: the unemployed are covered by social security, which is an insurance system partially backed from the tax pool)

The only "socialist" part here is that they make it hard to avoid the system (that is, leech off from others when you eventually get sick and end up in the ER, incurring costs higher than your net worth)

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#97

Post by Tomis02 »

stfu wrote: post #95

I thought the pandering to the underbelly ideology would only be celebrated among the reddit crowd. Sad to see that hn has been increasingly infected with these ideas as well. Sure, I am all for supporting the homeless and needy, but come on, re-purposing the presidential residence as a homeless shelter? That is the epitome of a populist gesture! If he is the president, he should act like a president, dress like a pr…

I don't understand your indignation. Just because this guy is in a minority compared to most presidents does not mean he is wrong.

"Infected with these ideas", really? Is it not you who has a fossilized thinking in regard to what other people should do? "he should act like a president, dress like a president and live like a president". Why, because you say so? I believe that if he is the president then he should act respectfully to his citizens, of which a lot still live in poverty. Dressing up in the most expensive clothes, living in luxury houses and eating only the finest food is a slap in the face of every person in that country who was not lucky enough to be born in a position that would grant them a good life.

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#98

Post by INTPenis »

ilamont wrote: post #7

Pope Francis has also rejected some of the traditional trappings of the Papacy (1): For his unveiling as pope Wednesday to the throng in St. Peter's Square, he shunned a special fur-trimmed red half-cloak and golden cross in favor of plain white vestments and his usual iron cross. To go pray at a church in central Rome on Thursday, he hopped into a regular Vatican sedan, not the papal limousine. He prefers a simple m…

I'll tell you what I told my deeply catholic father when he mentioned this; once they start sending out engineers and doctors instead of missionaries, then I'll be impressed.

Re: Uruguay's president José Mujica: no palace, no motorcade, no frills

#100

Post by ggambetta »

xweb wrote: post #2

Immediately searched for "moving to Uruguay" after reading this. The thought of a sane politician is so refreshing.

Hahaha, no. Please read my comments about him, and about why I ran out of the country, here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6886261
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