Election packaging By Pierre Lemieux
Please read this column from P Lemieux and get on his email list
http://libertyincanada.com/blog/index.php?blog=2&blog=2&p=668&page=1&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&disp=single#c903
Election packaging
By Pierre Lemieux
... excerpt
It is important to understand that the voters’ opinions are more important than their interests. The reason for this is simple but often overlooked. An individual voter is virtually certain not to influence the election outcome, which he could do only in the case of a tie, an event with an infinitesimally small probability. Thus, he has no incentive to vote according to his interests, for his ballot cannot further them. He can thus afford to express an opinion against his own interests. This explains why many people vote for policies that contradict their interests — like when they vote to have part of their income transferred to others.
That a vote is worth nothing in any instrumental or strategic sense was illustrated this week by a Saskatchewan man who had put his vote up for sale on eBay. After five days, no one had bid it up from the starting price of $1 (National Post, September 9, 2008). Secret balloting and the consequent impossibility for a buyer to enforce his contract has something to do with this. But even if voting was open, a single individual vote would still be worth nothing.
This fact carries a major consequence: what economists call “rational ignorance”. Since nothing better or worse will happen to the voter whether he votes red, blue, or green (or doesn’t vote at all), he has no incentive to spend the required time and resources getting informed about the different platforms and their consequences. To see this, ask yourself if an individual would try and obtain more or less information on automobiles if the make of car he drives were decided by a referendum. The typical voter votes blind.
Voters who have no philosophical opinion or faddish thoughts to express will vote simply to entertain themselves, to be part of the crowd — just as fans applaud at a hockey game, without any hope of having a perceptible impact on the noise level ....... excerpt
Hooray
This guy is great!!
http://libertyincanada.com/blog/index.php?blog=2&blog=2&p=668&page=1&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1&disp=single#c903
Election packaging
By Pierre Lemieux
... excerpt
It is important to understand that the voters’ opinions are more important than their interests. The reason for this is simple but often overlooked. An individual voter is virtually certain not to influence the election outcome, which he could do only in the case of a tie, an event with an infinitesimally small probability. Thus, he has no incentive to vote according to his interests, for his ballot cannot further them. He can thus afford to express an opinion against his own interests. This explains why many people vote for policies that contradict their interests — like when they vote to have part of their income transferred to others.
That a vote is worth nothing in any instrumental or strategic sense was illustrated this week by a Saskatchewan man who had put his vote up for sale on eBay. After five days, no one had bid it up from the starting price of $1 (National Post, September 9, 2008). Secret balloting and the consequent impossibility for a buyer to enforce his contract has something to do with this. But even if voting was open, a single individual vote would still be worth nothing.
This fact carries a major consequence: what economists call “rational ignorance”. Since nothing better or worse will happen to the voter whether he votes red, blue, or green (or doesn’t vote at all), he has no incentive to spend the required time and resources getting informed about the different platforms and their consequences. To see this, ask yourself if an individual would try and obtain more or less information on automobiles if the make of car he drives were decided by a referendum. The typical voter votes blind.
Voters who have no philosophical opinion or faddish thoughts to express will vote simply to entertain themselves, to be part of the crowd — just as fans applaud at a hockey game, without any hope of having a perceptible impact on the noise level ....... excerpt
Hooray
This guy is great!!
posted by Walk a Kb or Two in my cassins | 8:28 am
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