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<DIV>
<DIV>In a message dated 9/6/2004 1:06:38 PM Central Standard Time,
atarr@purdue.edu writes:</DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE
style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: blue 2px solid"><FONT
style="BACKGROUND-COLOR: transparent" face=Arial color=#000000 size=2><BR>But
I do NOT believe that an individual can have such preferences. Or, more
accurately, an individual may have such preferences, but I do not consider
them logical, and I have absolutely no interest in factoring such preferences
into a social choice algorithm.</FONT></BLOCKQUOTE></DIV>
<DIV></DIV>
<DIV>I thought I'd explained why individuals when asked pair-wise preferences
won't always give the same answer as they do when asked to give a ranked
ballot.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>The reason I wouldn't have chosen E over B, C, or D on a ranked ballot with
A as an alternative is that B, C, D "trumped" E on every issue that was not the
single one that A&E agreed upon.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>But once A is out of the picture, there's one issue that E trumps B, C, and
D on. And if A&E are both out of the picture than my sincere ordering of B,
C, D could well change. </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>My original point was that you can;'t infer that I prefer B>C from a
ballot that has A>B>C>D>E on it. If you ask me which I prefer of B
and C (only) I might say C sincerely because (in this example) C is the only one
that is both pro-gun control and anti-capital punishment.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>When both of those are covered by my first choice, I might rank C last
among B,C,D because of something else, like fiscal policy.</DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>There's no reason to believe you can infer pair-wise wins from a ranked
ballot voting method. Wishing it to be so and saying anybody who votes contrary
to the wishes is "irrational" does not make it useful or
acceptable.</DIV></FONT></BODY></HTML>