[EM] Vote Buying

[Greg Nisbet]

Good [insert correct time of day], Fred!

=I'll respond to your email now.

There were several points in your message that caught my attention but,
to avoid opening too many topics, I will only address one:

re: "This all comes down to the very nature of voting and
     democracy.

     As I have attempted to explain, voting is the exact opposite
     of individual rights ..."

=I think I attempted to explain that in You Can't Have it Both Ways.
Both Ways referred to individual liberty and democracy. Oh well. My
explanations are rarely clear, but it's something I'm working on.

I have not seen that sentiment expressed before.  It is worthy of
further comment:

=Glad you approve : )

The reason voting is the opposite of individual rights is that our
ability to participate in the political process is limited to approving
or disapproving choices made by others.  Nothing in our present practice
allows us to influence the selection of the people or issues for which
we vote.  That right is reserved to subsets of our society and denied to
the rest of us.  Thus, our political system is oligarchical, rather than
democratic, in nature.

=Good point. Mine was that shifting around the benefit and cost in a
democracy can lead quite easily to violation of private property etc.
E.g. I give the majority $1 and take $300 from the minority and
structure the policy this way. I proceed to pocket the difference made
by manipulating voters.

=You are correct that restrictive ballot access (I think that is what
this is.). You are correct that democracy does to some extent consist
of voters rubber stamping the decisions of some politicians. Whether
an issue is considered is far from democratic.

Voting under such circumstances violates our natural right to govern
ourselves.

=That is correct. Any arrangement of society sacrifices some
distortion. With democracy it is the pandering to a majority problem
and with inviolable property rights also leads to suboptimal outcomes.
I'd argue that democracy fails better because, assuming votes are
secret and unverifiable, relatively little abuse occurs. Under a
perfectly allodial society, an elite would gather strength and life
would suck. However, democracy at least provides a way out of whatever
torment it creates : ).

=Have a nice day,

=Greg Nisbet
=High school student with too much free time.