[EM] Proxy financial disincentive needn't be a problem.

[MIKE OSSIPOFF]

Kurt--

You  wrote:

The problem with a pure proxy setup, however, is that there is a
disincentive for anyone to adopt the duties of a super-proxy.  Time,
and financial opportunity cost.  If it's all purely ad-hoc, then it
means that someone becoming a proxy would not be compensated for it.
The only people with the resources to become a proxy are the ones that
are already employed in a very similar market as their interest group,
or people that are independently wealthy, etc.

I reply:

Sure, but how prohibitive a problem is that? For instance, I've heard that 
Nader is rich. If so, he probably isn't running for president because he 
needs the money. With proxy DD, I doubt that lack of salary would dissuade 
him for being a proxy. For a given political persuasion, only a few honest 
proxies would be needed.

And a lot of candidates aren't in it for the money. Those would likely be 
the most popular proxies, and the ones who'd be qualified to deal with the 
same details that they'd deal with if they won the offices that they run for 
now.

But, now that you mention it, there could be a system of public payment to 
proxies, based on how many people they're the proxy of.

Without that public payment, another solution is contributions. I'm sure 
that popular proxies could get enough contributions. Of course contributions 
is something that we'd all like to get away from.

Maybe some people, as proxies, could be influenced by big contributions from 
wealthy individuals. Maybe contributions would have to be required to be 
very small. But, unlike now, if you felt that your proxy was voting sleazily 
because of contributions or for any other reason, you'd immediately change 
proxies. He could lose all his voters overnight. Very soon that contributor 
would be his only voter.

But I prefer the govt payment of proxies based on how many voters they're 
proxies for. And govt payment for their communication to the public about 
their policies.

And there's nothing wrong with voters having an incentive to leave it to 
their proxies instead of voting on issues that aren't of great interest to 
them.

You continued:

Since there is a disincentive for everyone to vote on every little
issue, and there's also a disincentive towards becoming an even more
occupied proxy, I do not visualize how this would scale.

I reply:

As I said, all it would take, for a particular political persuasion, would 
be for 1 or a few people of that persuasion to want to be proxies. Nader, 
who doesn't need salary, is an example. Would rich people who favor the rich 
be disproportionately encouraged to run? Maybe, but no one has to choose 
them as proxies. All it takes is one or a few honest proxies, like Nader, 
who don't need salary.

Though I prefer govt payment to proxies on a per-voter basis, another way to 
avoid a bribery problem if payment were by private contributions would be to 
establish a maximum sum for the contributions that are accepted. It would be 
enough to live on, but not more. A popular proxy could get that so easily, 
even if s/he accepts contributions only from people with whom s/he already 
agrees, that bribery wouldn't be a problem. Why accept money from people who 
want you to vote their way, which would violate your principles,when (due to 
a limit on your contribution-sum) you could receive the same total amount of 
contributions from people who agree with you completely and don't want to 
change how you vote?

So that's 3 reasons why financial disincentive for proxies needn't be a 
problem: 1) Rich proxies; 2) Contributions required to be small, or (better 
yet) contributions whose sum is required to be below a specified amount that 
is just enough to live on, or just enough to fairly compensate the amount of 
work involved--including strictly scrutinized and reasonable operating 
costs; 3) Govt payment of proxies on a per-voter basis.

Mike Ossipoff

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