Video
Today is Election Day, albeit a quiet one. There isn’t much at stake in New York. There’s more action in New Jersey, though voter turnout is expected to be low, as it is in California. The irony is that the typical voter is more likely to have an impact in a smaller election than in a larger one, but it’s the bigger elections that draw far more voters.
In this new installment of FREAK-TV, Levitt explains why many economists don’t bother to vote — but why you should, if you really feel like it. If you find this viewpoint depressing, and want to become even further depressed, you should read this article we wrote a couple years ago about the utility of voting.
See you at the polls.
Or not.
and 
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It’s one thing to talk about utility to the individual, but can we analyze the utility to a society of having an involved citizenry? I don’t need any particular synapse, but I’m glad my synapses don’t sit out of important decisions due to their not being THE deciding synapse. Perhaps society is an organism too, and we vote because we realize that.Or maybe I’m just feeling some utility in feeling myself to be part of something bigger than myself.
It’s one thing to talk about utility to the individual, but can we analyze the utility to a society of having an involved citizenry? I don’t need any particular synapse, but I’m glad my synapses don’t sit out of important decisions due to their not being THE deciding synapse. Perhaps society is an organism too, and we vote because we realize that.Or maybe I’m just feeling some utility in feeling myself to be part of something bigger than myself.
Voting has only one redeeming quality in a large nation: the right to complain about whoever wins.
Voting has only one redeeming quality in a large nation: the right to complain about whoever wins.
The “wisdom of crowds”
The “wisdom of crowds”
I’m in NJ and I shall vote.
I just wish I was in Monmouth or Mercer county so I could vote for anyone other than Karcher and Beck. What a sickening campaign.
I’m in NJ and I shall vote.
I just wish I was in Monmouth or Mercer county so I could vote for anyone other than Karcher and Beck. What a sickening campaign.