I explained the problem with the votes-per-dollar formula in my first post. 45% of the vote / $1 >> 55% of the vote / $2, so it is not worth it for a candidate to spend money even if they can buy 10% of the vote for $1 (which is absurdly unrealistically high).
When I said maybe a formula would help, I meant a formula to explain what you mean by “coefficient” or “effective exchange rate”. The formula “votes / dollars spent” doesn’t have a coefficient in it.
If one candidate gets 200 votes and spends 200 dollars, and candidate 2 gets 201 votes and spends two MILLION dollars, who has the strongest mandate, in the sense that the representative actually represents the will of the people when wealth differences are ignored?
Sure, and my proposal of Votes / (10X + Y) would imply that the first candidate wins.
“it is not worth it for a candidate to spend money even if they can buy 10% of the vote for $1 (which is absurdly unrealistically high).”
So what is a realistic price / ‘exchange rate’ for this example, in your opinion?
I provided a coefficient of ‘1’ spelled out in the line below that, it could be ’10′ or ‘100’, etc.
”Sure, and my proposal of Votes / (10X + Y) would imply that the first candidate wins.”
Which invariant(s) would you construe this as maintaining? Why not just add a constant coefficient? This is more efficient to compute, and the average price is already too high, that’s ‘half the point’.
I explained the problem with the votes-per-dollar formula in my first post. 45% of the vote / $1 >> 55% of the vote / $2, so it is not worth it for a candidate to spend money even if they can buy 10% of the vote for $1 (which is absurdly unrealistically high).
When I said maybe a formula would help, I meant a formula to explain what you mean by “coefficient” or “effective exchange rate”. The formula “votes / dollars spent” doesn’t have a coefficient in it.
Sure, and my proposal of Votes / (10X + Y) would imply that the first candidate wins.
“it is not worth it for a candidate to spend money even if they can buy 10% of the vote for $1 (which is absurdly unrealistically high).”
So what is a realistic price / ‘exchange rate’ for this example, in your opinion?
I provided a coefficient of ‘1’ spelled out in the line below that, it could be ’10′ or ‘100’, etc.
”Sure, and my proposal of Votes / (10X + Y) would imply that the first candidate wins.”
Which invariant(s) would you construe this as maintaining? Why not just add a constant coefficient? This is more efficient to compute, and the average price is already too high, that’s ‘half the point’.