username2 comments on Rationality test: Vote for trump - Less Wrong

-18 Post author: pwno 16 June 2016 08:33AM

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Comment author: Diadem 17 June 2016 08:26:54AM *  -1 points [-]

The US federal budget is 3.7 trillion. The president probably can't meaningfully affect the spending of most of that, but his impact is still significant. If I had to ballpark it I'd say a trillion over 4 years seems likely. Plus his long term effect on the nation through laws and regulations.

How many Americans vote? About a hundred million? So the average value of a vote is in the area of $10,000. That is a lot of money. Sure it is much less if you live outside a swingstate, but not by a factor 100k.

Even if your non-swingstate vote was meaningless there is still a tragedy of the commons. If every California Democrat stayed home because the Democrats will win California anyway... they won't. The rational solution to a tragedy of the commons is not to defect.

Comment author: username2 17 June 2016 01:35:01PM 1 point [-]

How many Americans vote? About a hundred million? So the average value of a vote is in the area of $10,000. That is a lot of money. Sure it is much less if you live outside a swingstate, but not by a factor 100k.

But this is a total budget spending per voter, not a difference between your income under hypothetical scenarios where each of the candidates win.