Clearly, if you want to sell your vote in the next presidential election, you want to do it the old fashioned way through the local saloon, not on the internet. The legal troubles of this Minnesota teen attest to that.
This guy’s hijinks did, however, give us a glimpse into the market price of a vote.
The minimum bid was set at $10. Nobody bid on his item. The failure to attract bidders is consistent with the arguments that Dubner and I have made about the puzzle of why people vote. Any individual’s vote is almost certain not to determine a presidential election (especially if that vote is cast in a state like Minnesota). Thus, the market price for that vote should be essentially zero. Certainly well below ten dollars.
Of course, the fact that bidding on the item would have gotten you charged with a felony might also have discouraged bidding.
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Of course, if there was an entire marketplace for votes, allowing someone to obtain a critical mass that could possibly affect the results, the price could shoot up (whether or not a buyer could be charged with a felony).
Concerning the value of a vote, I think you guys are going about this the wrong way.
The question you should be asking is “how much is the presidency worth?” and then work backward from there. Afterall, it’s likely to be the candidates buying votes if a market ever arose.
So, if everyone acted rationally (didn’t vote), there would be no votes cast in an election. When this was achieved, it would then appear to be a rational for an individual to vote because they would be able to solely determine the outcome of the election (assuming no one else votes again). Therefore, what is the theoretical game theory equilibrium of how many people vote in an election?
He always said: just kidding.
She says: Heh, no trouble at all.
He says: what if?
She says: not possible.
I think I can put a better market value on a single vote – A fifth of cheap liquor.
In the mid 80′s, I had a friend who was a precinct captain in Chicago. One of his jobs on election day was to get a whole bunch of bottles and give them to the derilects in his ward in exchange for a vote.
Clearly, the machine was willing to pay the cost of cheap fifth for a single vote.
shoes. shoes can’t possibly sell well on the internet.
Let me get this straight — we can’t sell our votes, but politicians can buy our votes? Gas tax holidays, tax cuts, so-called faith-based spending. What are these if not offers to confer economic benefits if elected to office (re: in exchange for votes)?
I wonder how much the shipping and handling for delivering said individual to the voting district in demand would be – surely much more than the price of the vote. That’s probably what hindered people from bidding on it.