Comments on: Why Voting Doesn’t Always Give the Best Result

By: sam

sam — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 12:54:25 +0000

I dunno why, but this discussion reminded me of a column by Guy Kawasaki, the Mac Evangelist, some years back on why the Mac, which, all things considered, is and was a better machine than the PC, lost out to the PC in the corporate environment: The PC was "good enough" for the tasks required. He didn't seem to think that price was the fundamental issue, just serviceability to task. You only needed to be good enough, not better.

By: Steve Verdon

Steve Verdon — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 01:20:20 +0000

Already seen it. Its kind of pathetic that a police officer has to taser an elderly woman. Frankly, I'd be ashamed.

By: An Interested Party

An Interested Party — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 00:11:52 +0000

Totally off topic, but here's possible Verdon post bait...

By: Steve Verdon

Steve Verdon — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 19:32:12 +0000

Furhead,

I don't know, it would be a good guess, but a quick google search didn't provide any indications of who coined the term.

By: Furhead

Furhead — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 17:42:14 +0000

Did Arrow come up with the term "benevolent dictator"?

By: odograph

odograph — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:57:16 +0000

BTW, this page gives a rather unsatisfactory integration of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem with the problems of two party democracy. I suspect that the real application is in the cycles of feedback which produce the two party bundles of positions and ideas. We've the iterative elimination of items (a moderate VP for McCain perhaps) before the final choice is presented to the full electorate.

By: odograph

odograph — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:42:00 +0000

Why do you think there is a "best" result for Olympic cities?

(The top few are probably good enough, and you could play rock-paper-scissors for all I care. Though of course I prefer that other countries subsidize the Olympics and not me.)

By: Joe

Joe — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 14:12:17 +0000

Of course voting never seems completely impartial. Unless a vote is unanimous, there are always going to be disappointed people left in the aftermath who will think something wasn't fair.

By: PD Shaw

PD Shaw — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:55:27 +0000

This seems very similar to the voting patterns used by Lincoln to secure the Republican nomination in 1860. Seward was the top voter getter in the first two ballots, but Lincoln slowly consolidated the votes of candidates that realized they didn't have a cahnce and the votes of the anybody-but-Seward crowd.

Political parties ideally aren't contests for the best candidate, however. They seek the candidate that can best hold the coalition together even if that means everybody's second favorite choice wins.