Certainly I meant voting is free in the trivial sense that unlike to lottery, the other activity discussed in the original comment, it does not cost money to vote. In terms of the time and effort it takes beyond money, it seems entirely comparable to buying a lottery ticket. I can’t remember registering to vote, I certainly never went particularly out of my way to do it, and since that registration voting has been about the equivalent of going to a nearby 7-11 to get a lottery ticket, except it doesn’t cost any money.
Do you disagree that the cost of voting is extremely similar to the cost of buying a lottery ticket, except for the actual dollar cost?
You seem to think I’m trying to prove a theorem here, padding my non-existent strong argument with weak arguments in some sort of attempt to trick people. In fact, my belief about most motivations comes from my study of economics: a given event has multiple kinds of costs and multiple kinds of payouts. Listing the multiple payouts makes as much sense as valuing an investment by summing the dividends, the capital appreciation, AND the tax benefits it brings you, benefits are additive.
Don’t you think in determining a course of action it makes sense to add the benefits rather than just picking the “strongest” benefit and relying solely on that?
Good, we are adding facts to the examination of this question. As for facts:
1) The press is an outlier and wild claim discovery machine. I wonder what the average wait is? In my 37 years of voting I don’t think I’ve ever waited more than 5 minutes, and that covers voting in New York, New Jersey, and California. If there were a way to come up with a mean, or even a 95th percentile value, I would imagine the mean would be < 5 minutes, and within minutes of the mean to buy a lottery ticket and I would expect the 95th percentiles to be down in the 15 minutes or less range, and for both voting and lottery ticket buying.
2) A quick google quickly turns up a story of a 4 hour line to buy lottery tickets. The analogy between a lottery where the expected payout has increased a lot and voting in a swing state where the expected influence of a single vote has increased a lot seems reasonable, and they both seem to result in outlier waits measured in hours.
Good point about the wait, though, but amazingly even in this respect buying lottery tickets seems similar to voting.
Certainly I meant voting is free in the trivial sense that unlike to lottery, the other activity discussed in the original comment, it does not cost money to vote. In terms of the time and effort it takes beyond money, it seems entirely comparable to buying a lottery ticket. I can’t remember registering to vote, I certainly never went particularly out of my way to do it, and since that registration voting has been about the equivalent of going to a nearby 7-11 to get a lottery ticket, except it doesn’t cost any money.
Do you disagree that the cost of voting is extremely similar to the cost of buying a lottery ticket, except for the actual dollar cost?
You seem to think I’m trying to prove a theorem here, padding my non-existent strong argument with weak arguments in some sort of attempt to trick people. In fact, my belief about most motivations comes from my study of economics: a given event has multiple kinds of costs and multiple kinds of payouts. Listing the multiple payouts makes as much sense as valuing an investment by summing the dividends, the capital appreciation, AND the tax benefits it brings you, benefits are additive.
Don’t you think in determining a course of action it makes sense to add the benefits rather than just picking the “strongest” benefit and relying solely on that?
In swing states, people have to wait in line for about eight hours in order to vote, so, I personally do disagree.
Good, we are adding facts to the examination of this question. As for facts:
1) The press is an outlier and wild claim discovery machine. I wonder what the average wait is? In my 37 years of voting I don’t think I’ve ever waited more than 5 minutes, and that covers voting in New York, New Jersey, and California. If there were a way to come up with a mean, or even a 95th percentile value, I would imagine the mean would be < 5 minutes, and within minutes of the mean to buy a lottery ticket and I would expect the 95th percentiles to be down in the 15 minutes or less range, and for both voting and lottery ticket buying.
2) A quick google quickly turns up a story of a 4 hour line to buy lottery tickets. The analogy between a lottery where the expected payout has increased a lot and voting in a swing state where the expected influence of a single vote has increased a lot seems reasonable, and they both seem to result in outlier waits measured in hours.
Good point about the wait, though, but amazingly even in this respect buying lottery tickets seems similar to voting.
o.O